Toyota City, Japan, June 12, 2015 - (ACN Newswire) - Toyota GAZOO Racing will start the 83rd Le Mans 24 Hours from the fourth row of the grid after the final two qualifying sessions at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
This year's race marks 30 years since Toyota's first official participation in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the two TS040 Hybrids will start seventh and eighth when they make it 42 starts for Toyota in those three decades.
As it did in Wednesday's first qualifying, the team put its full focus on race preparation, which meant the four hours of qualifying this evening were used to improve car set-up and tyre choice prior to the weekend's main event.
The starting grid at Le Mans is decided by the fastest single lap set in any of the three qualifying sessions, but with only one free practice this week, the six hours of qualifying also represents a valuable opportunity to work on race performance.
The lead TS040 Hybrid on Saturday's grid is the #2 of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway in seventh. The fastest lap came on Wednesday evening, with Stephane recording a best time 6.656secs off pole position.
The #1 of reigning World Champions Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi, alongside last year's Le Mans pole position man Kazuki Nakajima, starts eighth. Kazuki also set his car's fastest lap on Wednesday, 0.224secs behind the sister car.
Despite fears of bad weather, second qualifying began in hot and humid conditions, providing a good opportunity for dry running following the rain which interrupted Wednesday's practice and the official test day last month.
But the session came to an early end due to the second red flag of the evening after an accident for a GT car. That meant the third and final qualifying was extended, beginning 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.
With the sun setting and the track dry, conditions looked promising but lap times throughout the LMP1 field soon suggested there would be little chance for drivers to improve their best qualifying times.
Despite a long red flag period, both TS040 Hybrids completed their programmes as the chequered flag flew in darkness to complete two busy days. The next track action comes on Saturday morning, with warm-up before the race starts at 15:00.
Toshio Sato, Team President: "First of all I would like to express our congratulations to Porsche on an impressive pole position. They were very fast in qualifying and we could not match their pace. Our team has worked professionally to optimize our cars for the race so we tried several set-up changes and looked in detail at the tyre characteristics. We will see the results of this work in the race. I expect the gap to be smaller than in qualifying. The team has pushed very hard to be ready for Le Mans and we will use the short time remaining to complete the final preparations and make sure our cars are in the best condition for the weekend. I think it will be a close and exciting race."
TS040 Hybrid #1(Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima)Qualifying 1 (Wednesday): 8th (3min 23.767secs), 25 laps Qualifying 2 (Thursday): 7th (3min 25.233secs), 20 laps Qualifying 3 (Thursday): 8th (3min 24.562secs), 30 laps Grid: 8th
Anthony Davidson:"I think if we really focused on qualifying we could have been quite a bit closer, but that wasn't the target. We have concentrated all through the week on getting a nice balance and I think we have achieved that for the race. I think from the team and drivers side we have done everything we planned to do. I feel good going into the race; now we just have to wait and see how it all unfolds."
Sebastien Buemi:"We didn't look for qualifying times; we just focused on race stints and I think we have a good car for the race. We need to go through all the final preparations to get the cars ready and we will have a good car. Clearly we lack a bit of pace but I think in the race we will be closer to the opposition. My feeling in the car is pretty good and I am looking forward now to Saturday. Congratulations to Porsche who did a great job to get pole position."
Kazuki Nakajima:"Today was a little bit tricky for me. When I was in the car the track surface was not very good and I had a strange feeling due to some dust and dirt on the track. So I am really happy to hear that in the end Anthony was pleased with the car; that's a good sign for the race. Now it is just about putting everything together, avoiding mistakes and reliability issues; we'll just keep pushing and let's see what it brings us."
TS040 Hybrid #2(Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway)Qualifying 1 (Wednesday): 7th (3min 23.543secs), 23 laps Qualifying 2 (Thursday): 8th (3min 26.380secs), 15 laps Qualifying 3 (Thursday): 7th (3min 23.738secs), 29 laps Grid: 7th
Alex Wurz:"Well done to the Porsche #18 guys who did a great job to get pole. We used the final two qualifying sessions to get through all the preparation work we had planned. That is all done and we now have to look through the data, study items like the tyres and aerodynamic configurations to set-up our car and get the maximum possible performance. We must choose wisely for the race."
Stephane Sarrazin:"I think we have prepared the car well for the race. We didn't try to fight for the pole; that was not possible for us this week. So we put all our energy into getting a strong car for the race. The others are really fast but I remember from last year that a fast car is not everything here. I am looking forward to see what the situation is after a few hours of the race."
Mike Conway:"It was good to get some more night running today. I got a good rhythm I feel better at night than I did yesterday. I am happy now and feel ready for the race. We have done a lot of preparation work. There are still a few little things to adjust to fine-tune the set-up, but at the end of the session we had the best we've had all day so I am happy with that."
Qualifying 1
Busy Start for Toyota GAZOO Racing
Toyota GAZOO Racing began its Le Mans 24 Hours week with a busy day of preparation in the opening practice and qualifying sessions for the third round of the World Endurance Championship.
With the emphasis firmly on set-up development and tyre evaluation over long stints rather than qualifying position, both TS040 Hybrids continued the constructive work started at last month's official test day.
The #2 of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway was the fastest TS040 Hybrid and earned provisional seventh on the grid, with the #1 of Anthony Davidson, S?bastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in eighth.
Evening sun greeted the start of the two-hour qualifying as 14 LMP1 cars in a grid of 56 fought for pole position, which is awarded to the fastest single lap time from any of the three qualifying sessions.
The contest was interrupted at half distance by a red flag, reducing running time by around half an hour as safety barriers were repaired following an accident.
Around a quarter of the session remained, making for a very busy race track but Kazuki and Stephane took the chequered flag having improved their respective lap times in the closing minutes.
A productive day delivered plenty of data and gave the team reason to believe there is more to come from the TS040 Hybrid in race trim, with more improvements targeted in Thursday's two qualifying sessions.
Earlier in the afternoon, the only official free practice of the week started on a wet track with both cars leaving the pits on grooved tyres to begin four hours of fine-tuning and analysis.
A dry period allowed the team to study the changeover point from wet to hybrid intermediate then dry tyres. Within a few laps on slick tyres, Sebastien improved on the best lap set by a TS040 Hybrid during the official test day.
The rain returned periodically until the end of a session which was also interrupted by a lengthy red flag period. Despite the disruptions, the two TS040 Hybrids completed a total of 78 laps, 1063km after a trouble-free practice.
Qualifying continues on Thursday with two more 120-minute sessions (19:00 & 22:00). The drivers' parade in the city on Friday afternoon gives fans a chance to meet the drivers before the race weekend, which begins with a 45-minute warm-up at 09:00. The race starts at 15:00 on Saturday.
TS040 Hybrid #1(Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima)
Free practice 1: 7th (3min 24.763secs), 41 laps Qualifying 1: 8th (3min 23.767secs), 25 laps
Anthony Davidson:"It was nice to finally drive some laps in the dry today after the wet conditions we experienced for most of the test day. The car felt nice to drive and we didn't have any problems, so it's been a decent start. We have focused 100% on race performance; given what we saw at Spa and in the test we were never going to focus on qualifying. There is still a long way to go this week and the story of Le Mans 2015 will be written on Saturday and Sunday, not in qualifying."
Sebastien Buemi:"In line with Spa, we are not on the same level as Audi and Porsche over one lap so today was all about race set-up. Congratulations to Porsche on getting the provisional pole with a very quick lap. We are working as hard as we can on the car to get it into the best possible condition for the race. We did a lot of work today and got lots of information so we will be working hard to find more performance and put ourselves in the best position for the weekend."
Kazuki Nakajima:"Today we worked on our car set-up and race preparation, looking at tyre degradation and performance. I think we found a good set-up so I am quite happy with the work we did today. I was quite unlucky with traffic at the end of my best lap in the evening, but qualifying isn't the priority. If the bad luck comes in qualifying, it's much better than it coming in the race."
TS040 Hybrid #2(Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway)
Free practice 1: 8th (3min 25.537secs), 37 laps Qualifying 1: 7th (3min 23.543secs), 23 laps
Alex Wurz:"I did some work for the race and car balance is going in a good direction. It's a year since we've been at Le Mans at night and it always takes a few laps to get your references correct, with so many reflections and lights. You have to filter out what is useful and what is just annoying; the usual process in Le Mans race week. The weather forecast is mixed tomorrow so let's wait and see what we get."
Stephane Sarrazin:"The car is feeling good for the race and we worked very hard for that. We improved the balance and understood more about the tyres, so it's been a positive day, despite the final classifications. Porsche was very fast so congratulations to them for provisional pole position. We didn't event go for a qualifying run as we are putting all of our effort into the race. We'll keep working hard tomorrow and let's see what we can do."
Mike Conway:"It was good to get a few laps in the night, my first in an LMP1 here, but unfortunately we had the red flag and lost half an hour so I didn't get as much running as I hoped for. I have to wait until tomorrow to get more track time in the night which is what I need. Stephane did a good job in terms of lap time late in qualifying but we were looking at the race so one-lap pace wasn't the priority."
About Toyota
Supported by people around the world, Toyota Motor Corporation (TSE: 7203; NYSE: TM), has endeavored since its establishment in 1937 to serve society by creating better products. As of the end of December 2013, Toyota conducts its business worldwide with 52 overseas manufacturing companies in 27 countries and regions. Toyota's vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions. For more information, please visit www.toyota-global.com.
Source: Toyota
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