TOYOTA GAZOO Racing continued its bid for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title with a productive opening day, starting with free practice at Interlagos for the São Paulo 6 Hours, the fifth round of the season.

Just four weeks after a strong showing at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the team completed an intensive preparation programme in Brazil, with the team expecting an exciting race and fierce competition on the 19-car Hypercar grid.

World Champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, who finished fifth at Le Mans, set the pace in free practice with a lap of 1 minute and 25.727 seconds on a day when the four fastest Hypercars were just 0.049 seconds apart and the top 10 were separated by less than a second.

“We had a good day,” said Hartley. “We tested different tyre compounds and only made minor changes to the set-up as we had rain and a red flag in the first session.

“Overall it was a very smooth start for the team on both sides of the garage. We finished first and second, which is nice but incredibly tight. Now we have to work through the night to review all the data and everything we have learned.”

Mike Conway made a successful return to action after missing Le Mans through injury. He rejoined Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, who finished second in the 24 Hours, behind the wheel of the #7 GR010 HYBRID, which finished second fastest on the day.

The GR010 HYBRID made its debut at Interlagos, the scene of Toyota’s first hybrid WEC victory and maiden World Championship success, while the Hypercar team took to the track for two free practice sessions on Friday.

Due to the anti-clockwise layout at Interlagos and the Circuit of the Americas, the venue for the next race, the GR010 HYBRIDs have been adapted for left-hand refuelling for the first time. Pit stop practice on Thursday and Friday allowed the teams to adapt to the revised process without compromising their renowned speed.

Rain fell late on a cloudy morning, 45 minutes before the start of first practice, and temperatures dropped to 16°C, meaning all cars started the session on wet tyres.

Neither Nyck nor Ryo had raced at Interlagos before, but like their teammates, they spent time on the driving simulator at the team base in Cologne, Germany, to get an early start on preparations. In addition to becoming more familiar with the track, the initial practice routine included some setup adjustments to begin the process of optimizing the GR010 HYBRIDs for the 4.309 km circuit.

Track conditions improved sufficiently for slicks after around 40 minutes, but a red flag came out halfway through. The session could not continue due to barrier repairs, meaning Sébastien’s best lap on slicks gave the #8 fourth place, while Mike recorded the best time in the #7 in eighth.

After tweaking the set-up from the morning’s runs, the second practice session in warmer, drier conditions gave both cars a chance to explore their qualifying performances before the focus turned to analysing the medium and hard-compound Michelin tyres.

Early fast laps from Mike and Sébastien put the two GR010 HYBRIDs at the top of the timesheets for the first half of the session. Sébastien’s lap kept the #8 in first place until the chequered flag. The #7 fell back down the order as the others got faster, but Kamui improved to regain second place.

The team will now work hard to optimise their setup and tyre strategy ahead of final practice ahead of qualifying on Saturday at 15:10 local time (20:10 CEST). The race will start on Sunday at 11:30 (16:30 CEST).

6 Hours São Paulo – Free Training 1
1. #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies (Jensen/Müller/Vergne) 1min 26.341sec 26 laps
2. #2 Cadillac Racing (Bamber/Lynn) +0.179 seconds 21 laps
3. #6 Porsche Penske (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) +0.226 seconds 26 laps
4. #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.436 seconds 22 laps
5. #83 AF Corse (Kubica/Shwartzman/Ye) +0.483 seconds 23 laps
6. #20 BMW M Team WRT (Van der Linde/Frijns/Rast) +0.530 seconds 24 laps
​8. #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.306 seconds 24 laps

6 Hours São Paulo – Free Training 2
1. #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 1min 25.727sec 83 laps
2. #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.033sec 77 laps
3. #51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) +0.043 seconds 70 laps
4. #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) +0.049 seconds 66 laps
5. #2 Cadillac Racing (Bamber/Lynn) +0.142 seconds 65 laps
6. #12 Hertz Team JOTA (Stevens/Ilott/Nato) +0.204 seconds 75 laps