Toyota TS030 Hybrid takes its first victory at 6 Hrs of Sao Paulo!

They might not have had the best of luck at their debut race in the 24 Hours Of Le Mans earlier this year, but it hasn’t taken long for the Toyota TS030 Hybrid to claim its first victory. Climbing on to the top step of the podium at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo this week were Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre after 247 laps of body-rattling racing at the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The weekend itself started off on a high note for the team with Wurz and Lapierre staking claim to pole position in the No.7 TS030 Hybrid and they pretty much led all the way from start to finish in the race as well. With a smaller fuel tank than its other non-hybrid competitors the Toyota would have to pit more than the competition but the race’s only safety car period played right into the hands of the Toyota team. While the No.2 Audi R18 Ultra and the No.1 R18 e-tron Quattro were stuck behind the second safety car, the TS030 was behind the first and they managed to extend quite a lead. Wurz and Lapierre led the whole distance of the race except for a brief moment during their first pitstop.

At the end of the 6 hour run, the top three cars had completed the same number of laps as the race-winning Toyota, with Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer coming in second just over a minute behind in the R18 e-tron Quattro while Kristensen/McNish/di Grassi followed third in the R18 Ultra. Fourth place was taken by the very dominant privateer team Rebellion Racing and their Toyota-powered Lola B12/60 coupe with Neil Jani and Nicolas Prost at the wheel, leading Strakka racing’s No.21 HPD ARX 03a Honda in fifth 7 laps behind the race winners.

In the LMP2 class the Starworks Motorsports team pulled off yet another dominant win having completed 234 laps. This brings up their third win of the season for the No.44 after winning the opening round at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the all-important 24 Hours Of Le Mans. It wasn’t as comfortable a win as the results seem though with Potolicchio/Dalziel/Sarrazin having a tough four-hour long battle with the No.35 Oak Racing Morgan-Nissan before the latter’s race ended with a technical problem. Oak Racing had to settle for third place in LMP2 with their sister car, the No.24 driven by Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla while Pecom Racing’s No.49 Oreca Nissan made it to second.

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Driver quotes:

Nicolas Lapierre – 1st LMP1

No.7 Toyota Racing Toyota TS030-Hybrid

“It’s fantastic for the team.  Since the beginning of the year we knew it was a fast car, but we struggled with reliability in Le Mans.  At Silverstone we showed our pace and we came away with the second place.  So coming here, Alex did a wonderful job in qualifying getting our first pole position and then we were able to pull away.  We were very good on tyre management and we had a faultless race, which brought us to this win in only our third race.”

Alex Wurz – 1st LMP1

No.7 Toyota Racing TS030-Hybrid

“Thanks to Nico and the team, they have been pushing really hard all weekend.  To be honest we didn’t know about the fuel strategy, the safety car helped us a bit but we still had to do a splash. The key today was tyre management, especially in the second stint, which gave us the upper hand on our competitors.  We also did a lot of work on the setup and drivers side too.  Whether we can be competitive in Bahrain, Fuji and Shanghai, Kinoshita San summed it up earlier this year at the Le Mans press conference, ‘you watch, we push’.”

Benoit Treluyer – 2nd LMP1

No.1 Audi Sport Team Joest  Audi R18 e-tron quattro

“Honestly I wasn ‘t truly surprised from the beginning, but I was surprised by the tyre degradation.  I think we weren’t on the right pressure and that was why I suffered a little bit in the second stint.  Unfortunately the safety car didn’t help us either.  Anyway we had a good fight with the Toyota and with Alan and we are going to be ready for Bahrain. The race in Silverstone was on our side and the race here was more on their side and Toyota deserve to win this race, they did a great job.”

Marcel Fassler – 2nd LMP1

No.1 Audi Sport Team Joest  Audi R18 e-tron quattro

“First of all I’d like to congratulate Toyota on their win today; it was a really strong performance.  The second place is good for the driver championship, which gives us three extra points and this is our main goal for the season.  As a driver we all want to win, we can’t be happy to be runner up but today we just didn’t have the performance.  I struggled a bit in my second stint with tyre degradation, so it just wasn’t possible.”

Andre Lotterer – 2nd LMP1

No.1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro

“Congratulations to Toyota and the only reaction we can do is drive faster and try to beat them now.  They have increased their speed a lot and on high down force tracks, their rear wing helps as well.  For sure we weren’t in ideal conditions with our tyres but we collected a lot of data here and we have a chance to improve.  We had a good fight with our sister car and I’m pleased we could stay ahead of them.”

Allan McNish – 3rd LMP1

No.2 Audi Sport Team Joest  Audi R18 Ultra

“First thing was it was very tough off the line because both Nicolas and Ben were able to out accelerate me.  During the first couple of laps I thought we may have been able to hang on but as soon as they got their tyres up to temperature they pulled away.  From that point it was a case of conserving the tyres.  I was not as quick as Ben in the first stint and he was able to pull away, but in the second stint I was in better shape and I was able to pull back in.  In reality this was as fast as the car would go.  Where we are with the ultra is we have a good set up, we worked hard with it and in one lap we can definitely do the time.  We struggled a bit in traffic so overall I think we did a pretty good job considering where we were.”

Tom Kristensen – 3rd LMP1

No.2 Audi Sport Team Joest  Audi R18 Ultra

“Congratulations to Toyota, they have worked very hard; I know how hard we work, so I think that’s very important and today is a day that belongs to them.  Also I’ve enjoyed many, many years with Allan and Dindo and now Dindos not here and we have Lucas.  He did a splendid job and I’m very happy he is part of the Audi family.  We had a strong race, I have to put my hand up to say I had a close encounter with a GT car, I can’t blame the GT car and this cost us some time.  The second time I got put onto the grass but these things happen from time to time.  Today things didn’t work out for us and well done to Toyota.”

Lucas di Grassi – 3rd LMP1

No.2 Audi Sport Team Joest  Audi R18 Ultra

“I have to thank my teammates, they’ve been incredibly helpful to try and fit me into the team. I’d also like to thank Audi for this amazing experience. Regarding the race, we did the best we could with the car, we worked very hard and today we didn’t have the fastest car.  I’d like to congratulate Toyota, it is always good to have strong competition and Audi will now have to pull back to them.”

Stephane Sarrazin - 1st LMP2

No.44 Starworks Motorsports HPD ARX 03b Honda

“It’s been a perfect weekend for us.  We arrived for free practice and the car was already good and we had a very good qualifying with the pole.  The race was very strong for us and both Enzo and Ryan did a perfect job in the car and extended the lead, with no problems in the car, so we were able to push.  We had a fast car and it was a perfect weekend.  We extended our lead in the championship and it’s like a dream so we hope to do the same again in two weeks.”

Enzo Potolicchio - 1st LMP2

No.44 Starworks Motorsports HPD ARX 03b Honda

“In the beginning the team was hiding from me that I was catching the leaders and they didn’t want me to do anything different and then, when I started to see that I was getting closer, I just had in mind to give car back to my co-drivers in good shape and with no damage and that’s what I did.  I had a really good stint and I feel good about my average time and I was able to hold the position and hand over to Ryan in good shape.  We’ve got a comfortable lead in the WEC and the car ahead of us wasn’t a problem on points.  We kept the car clean and just have to polish it up to go to Bahrain.  I’m really proud to be part of Starworks.  Ryan and I had no knowledge of any other these tracks this year apart from Sebring, everything else is brand new for us and we’ve had some great results at the biggest events of the year.  This is the closest event to home for me so I’m really excited to be here.”

Ryan Dalziel - 1st LMP2

No.44 Starworks Motorsports HPD ARX 03b Honda

“I think the Starworks HPD was the car to have this weekend!  It’s a great package but we have great people too.  We turned up here and found, for the first time that we were competitive straight away.  We expected to maybe have a bit of an advantage here being the only turbo-powered LMP2 in the field but the Nissans can still match us even at altitude.  We didn’t have the advantage we first thought we’d have but what we did have was an extremely fast and reliable car.  Most places seem to come down to tyre wear and we’re extremely conservative on what we do to the car to make sure we can double-stint consistently.  A lot of the other cars seemed to be falling off in their second stints and I think we’ve been strong at that all year.  Today was definitely won by strategy, hard work and a well-prepared car.”