6 Hours of São Paulo: Race Victory for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing in Brazil

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing won the 6 Hours of São Paulo to ignite its 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title challenge on a dramatic day at Interlagos.

At the scene of Toyota’s first-ever hybrid-powered WEC victory in 2012, World Champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa earned their first win of the season in the #8 GR010 HYBRID in front of a passionate 73,205 Brazilian crowd.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, in the pole position-winning #7 GR010 HYBRID, were on course for victory until a long pit stop for a technical issue dropped them down the field. However, a stunning fight back delivered fourth place and 12 valuable World Championship points.

A hard-earned second victory of the year, courtesy of flawless driving, strong team work and a superior tyre strategy, earned maximum points for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and reduced the gap to leaders Porsche to only four points in the manufacturers’ standings with three races remaining in the season.  

For the first time since Bahrain last November, an all-Toyota front row led the field away at the start. Mike made a clean getaway and began building a cushion over the chasing pack. Brendon recovered after running wide into the first turn and settled into second. 

Mike took care to preserve his medium compound tyres in hot temperatures on the abrasive Interlagos track surface and plotted a safe course through the traffic. In the opening hour he built an 11-second advantage over Brendon, who was successfully holding the #5 Porsche at arm’s length.

The #7 was still comfortably in control at the 90-minute mark but suffered its first blow when a drive-through penalty for a full course yellow infringement wiped out Mike’s advantage. A more significant issue came early in the third hour when repairs were needed on a control unit and Nyck resumed in 18th.

By then Ryo was at the wheel of the #8 to take up the team’s victory challenge and he soon moved to the front. By half distance he had extended his lead to 30secs and he pitted for new Michelin tyres on the right-hand side only; a strategy to maintain tyre temperature and manage degradation.

Ryo put in a fast stint on his Interlagos debut to build a lead of over 40 seconds going into the final two hours before handing over to Sébastien. Nyck’s battling performance brought the #7 back into the fight for points and Kamui took the wheel for the final two stints.

Sébastien maintained the #8’s consistent speed at the front, making a final fuel stop with an hour remaining and resuming with a clear lead. He protected that until the chequered flag, finishing 1min 8.811secs ahead of the #6 Porsche. 

The #7’s determined fight back continued until the flag and Kamui hunted down the #51 Ferrari in the closing laps, forcing his way past with a breathtaking overtake for fourth place inside the last five minutes. 

After a productive visit to South America, the team’s bid to retain its World Championship titles moves to North America for the next race, when the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas hosts the Lone Star Le Mans on 1 September.

Akio Toyoda (Team Founder): “Congratulations to Séb, Brendon, Ryo, and everyone in the #8 car for winning!

Everyone was motivated by the disappointment of Le Mans and you made up for the disappointment of not only the WEC team but also everyone at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. Thank you very much!

Everyone in car #7 may not have gotten over their frustration yet. However, the way they fought back to fourth position even though they had dropped to 17th was fantastic. Especially Kamui’s overtake at the end was really great!

His determination as a driver, his sense of responsibility as a team principal, his unique talent as an entertainer, and his unusual habit of always making waves! I really love Kamui Kobayashi and the #7 car. Maybe it’s because they are a little like me….

In fact, Morizo is even happier than usual about the Brazilian result. Not only because of the frustration of Le Mans, but also for several other reasons.

One is Mike’s return. I was really sorry to see him miss Le Mans but I am so glad to see him back in one piece. I heard that he is not completely healed yet, but I hope he will recover well and I look forward to seeing him in the next race.

On the other hand, it was a little disappointing that Jose had not chance to race in his home continent of South America in the #7 car due to Mike’s return. It was the first WEC race in South America in 10 years and I think Jose himself would have really wanted to race in the #7. Jose went out of his way to visit his friends at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and he also encouraged the local Brazilian supporters. I am once again thankful to have José as a family member.

And Ryan, who stood on the podium with the drivers as the engineer of the #8 car. Congratulations on your first podium! He came to Japan without a break after Le Mans and also engineered for us in Super Formula. His presence has brought the WEC team and me even closer together. I know it is hard for him to travel back and forth to Japan but I ask for his continued support.

Last but not least, there was big cheering section in Brazil, where Toyota friends gathered at the circuit for the first time in 10 years. South America is some distance from Japan and that makes it difficult for me to visit but I often feel the warmth of my friends in South America, who call me Morizo instead of Akio. This time, the support of these friends was undoubtedly the driving force behind car #8’s victory and car #7’s amazing pursuit of the lead. Thank you so much for your enthusiastic support, my Brazilian friends!

Although the race was held at a distance, I felt as if I was fighting right beside the team. Kamui has built this team, and I would like to continue to fight right beside them as I aim for the championship.”

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “For the team, this was definitely our week. We had good pace in qualifying then both cars were really strong in the race and we managed the tyre degradation really well. Congratulations to car #8 for the victory; they drove a great race. Obviously, car #7 had the potential to win but unfortunately we had an issue and that cost us time in the pits. From then on it was a difficult situation for us but we tried our best to come back, and fourth was the best we could realistically achieve. Thanks to the team for all their hard work. We will analyse what happened on our car and come back even stronger for the next races.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “We had such a strong car all day. I made a mistake with the FCY, just over-speeding slightly, but we managed to get back into the lead anyway. We had really good tyre wear at that point and thought we were looking good. But at the end of my stint, we started to notice the issue. The team tried to fix it and we lost time, so we went all the way to the back. Kamui and Nyck drove well to get us back up to fourth. We couldn’t do any better in terms of a recovery, but we still feel like this one got away from us.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “I think overall the weekend has been very positive. The performance has been great and the team did a stellar job. Kamui obviously qualified the car on pole, and all was looking positive. Unfortunately, this technical issue took away our opportunity to finish the job. It’s a pity. We did a very strong recovery between us to come back from last to fourth which was impressive. It hurts that we didn’t bring home the victory but I am very happy for car #8 to bring home the win for the team.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “It is an amazing day for us on car #8, winning a race for the first time this year. We had a great car. Tyre management was one of our strengths, particularly the fact we could use the medium compound throughout the race which really helped us have good pace. I’m so happy to finally have a weekend without any issues after a tricky start to the season. We had a strong qualifying with the one-two but car #7 was unlucky with their issue. They were very fast and deserved a much better result than that. We scored good points in the manufacturers’ World Championship, and we will go to the next race aiming to keep that going.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It feels great to get the first win of the season. We haven’t had the best of seasons up to now on car #8 so to get this win is fantastic. Car #7 did an amazing race, they were flying today, so I feel bad for them. My first stint at the start was not easy, with a lot of tyre degradation but we got on top of that and had a nice, clean race. We got the win and that’s what matters. We also scored good points for the World Championship, so we want to keep this momentum for the next races.” 

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “I am so happy for our first victory of the year. It has been a long time since Bahrain when we last won but we never gave up and always pushed hard. My stint was not easy with the degradation, so I needed to look after the tyres. I had the chance to change tyres on the right-hand side but I still had to manage the tyres a lot, so I was happy I could keep the gap to the car behind. For the team in the manufacturers’ World Championship, it was important that we won the race, and I am happy we did it. Thanks to the fans for their support all weekend and thanks to the whole team for their huge effort this week. There are three races to go so we will keep pushing for the title.”