Just four weeks on from a strong performance in a dramatic Le Mans 24 Hours, the team completed an intensive preparation programme during practice in Brazil, amid close competition and expectations for an exciting contest among the 19-strong Hypercar grid.

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

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 ended the day second quickest.

The GR010 HYBRID was making its first appearance at Interlagos, scene of Toyota’s first hybrid-powered WEC victory and its first World Championship success, when the Hypercar field took to the track for two free practice sessions on Friday.

Due to the anti-clockwise lay-out at Interlagos – and the Circuit of the Americas, venue for the next race – the GR010 HYBRIDs are adapted for left-hand-side refuelling for the first time. Pit stop practices on Thursday and Friday allowed the crews to adjust to the revised process without compromising their renowned speed.

Rain struck 45 minutes before the start of first practice late on a cloudy morning, with air temperatures down at 16°C, meaning all cars started the session on wet tyres.

Neither Nyck nor Ryo had previously driven at Interlagos but, like their team-mates, they spent time on the driving simulator at the team’s base in Cologne, Germany to get a head start on preparations. As well as becoming more familiar with the track, the first practice programme also included some set-up adjustments to kick-off the process of optimising the GR010 HYBRIDs for the 4.309km circuit.

Track conditions improved sufficiently for slick tyres after around 40 minutes, but a red flag came at the halfway point. The session could not resume due to barrier repairs, meaning Sébastien’s best lap on slicks earned fourth for the #8, while Mike recorded the best time in the eighth-placed #7.

After adjusting set-ups based on the morning’s running, an extended second practice in warmer, drier conditions gave both cars a chance to explore qualifying performance before focus switched 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 timing sheets for the first half of the session. Sébastien’s lap kept the #8 in first place until the chequered flag. The #7 had slid down the order as others got faster, but Kamui improved to earn second place.

The team will now work hard to optimise set-ups and tyre strategies before final practice on Saturday, prior to qualifying from 3.10pm local time (8.10pm CEST). The race begins at 11.30am (4.30pm CEST) on Sunday.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):

“I’m happy to be back here in Brazil. It has been a good start to the event and everything went pretty smoothly for both cars. We need to understand the track and how it evolves a bit more because the track surface has chanced since last time we raced here, so we need to analyse that. We still have one more practice session so we will use that to prepare our car and strategies for qualifying and the race. We will do our best and we’ll see where we are after qualifying.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):

“Obviously it’s great to get back in the car. I wasn’t sure what to expect even though I was feeling positive. I felt okay out there which gives me confidence for the rest of the weekend. I have a few aches but that’s normal and it general I am feeling pretty good. It seems like we have a decent car as well, so I am looking forward to the next sessions.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“I think it was a decent day. I enjoyed driving here for the first time. It is a short but very specific track, with low grip levels today, but I enjoyed learning it. It seems like we are in the mix and competitive, but we need to see what is happening in the long runs and in terms of tyres. We have work to do but it’s a good start. Let’s see what we can do in qualifying.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“It’s the first day back in Brazil and we had different conditions; rain to start with then a dry track. It’s a tight circuit with lots of cars but we ended the day first and second. It looks very tight in Hypercar, so we need to make sure we extract maximum performance and work on the long run pace. That will be key to getting a strong result and we’ve got a lot of good data to work with now.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“We’ve had a good day. We tested different tyre compounds and only made minor changes on the set-up because we had rain and the red flag in the first session. Overall, it’s been a very smooth start for the team on both sides of the garage. We finished first and second which is nice but it’s incredibly tight. Now we’ve got to work overnight to go through all the data and everything we’ve learned.”

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):

“The first day is done and I think we are in good shape. We had tricky conditions in first practice and unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to drive due to the red flag, but I made up for that in the afternoon and did a lot of laps. It was a good session for me. This was my first time driving on this track, but I feel confident. It’s not easy because it’s a tight track with a lot of traffic but I am enjoying it so far.”