The World Champions arrived in Japan at the top of the manufacturers’ standings for the first time this season and looking to extend the team’s winning record at Fuji Speedway to 10 victories, and seven in a row, despite experiencing another adjustment to the power and weight parameters of the GR010 HYBRIDs.

Two constructive free practice sessions marked a trouble-free start to its home event. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were fifth fastest overall in their #8 GR010 HYBRID, while Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries were ninth in the #7, on a day when just 0.554secs separated the top 10.

As in Austin two weeks ago, the team will meet the challenge of a very competitive Hypercar field head on and work intensively to extract maximum performance from the GR010 HYBRIDs, whilst using the experience of its drivers, engineers and mechanics to plan another effective race strategy supported by optimum pitstops.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s home event kicked off earlier this week when all six drivers joined Kazuki Nakajima at an event near Toyota City on Tuesday to thank the team’s partners for their support. The following day, they visited a junior high school in Susono city, close to Higashi-fuji Technical Center, to encourage the next generation of motorsport fans. Meanwhile, team members preparing at Fuji Speedway appreciated the usual warm welcome from their local TOYOTA GAZOO Racing colleagues.

Track action began late on Friday morning with first practice, taking place in temperatures of 26°C. The 2024-specification GR010 HYBRIDs, whose powertrains are built at the nearby Higashi-Fuji Technical Center, turned their first laps of Fuji Speedway in the hands of Nyck and Ryo.

With another close battle between the 18-strong Hypercar grid emerging this weekend, the team had a busy programme of mechanical and aerodynamic set-ups to work on as drivers and engineers fine-tuned the GR010 HYBRIDs in preparation for Sunday’s race.

Despite a short interruption due to a late red flag, the team completed an encouraging 90 minutes, which ended with the #8 in second thanks to Ryo’s early flying lap, just 0.010secs off the top of the timesheets. Nyck’s best time, also at the beginning of the session, put the #7 fifth.

In second practice, work switched to analysing the performance and degradation of the medium and hard compound Michelins to prepare for another race in which good tyre management can offer a strategic advantage.

Kamui and Ryo started with a qualifying simulation, setting the fastest lap times for their respective cars in the opening minutes. Longer stints followed to assess the tyres and other set-ups, with only a brief full course yellow later in the session disrupting proceedings. The #8 ended second practice fifth with the #7 ninth.

Practice concludes on Saturday morning with a final one-hour session before the starting grid is decided in qualifying and Hyperpole, starting at 3pm local time (8am CEST), when TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will aim for its fifth consecutive pole at Fuji Speedway. The race starts at 11am (4am CEST) on Sunday.

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

“It’s great to be back at Fuji Speedway with the GR010 HYBRID. This is our home race, and all our supporters come here to cheer us on which definitely brings us something extra. We have been working to optimise our cars during the two sessions today. It’s a bit challenging at the moment because the battle is tight among all Hypercars. This year the competition is strong, so to win for the tenth time here is not easy. Hopefully we can put it all together; we’ll see tomorrow.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):

“It’s been a decent start to our home event, but we still need to work on our pace in the short and long runs. We have been trying to improve the car balance for the race, which is going to be about tyre management again. Let’s see what happens with the temperatures and how that might affect things. We still have some things to improve, and we are pushing hard to see what we can get out of the car.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“The first day on track here at Fuji was decent in terms of the running we managed and the learning we did. It looks to be tight and very competitive in Hypercar which isn’t a surprise because we have seen that at pretty much every event this year. It’s going to be a tough battle so we need to get our heads down tonight and put all the pieces together for the rest of the weekend.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“I am obviously very happy to be here in Japan for our home race. We’ve been here since Saturday, visiting our partners, and it has been a nice experience. Today it was good to be back in the car. We had two clean sessions where we focused on which tyre compound to use and how to manage them. Tyre wear will be a big factor because the stints here are pretty long. We have a lot of data to analyse and we will work hard to maximise the set-up.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“It’s great to be back in Japan with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing because we feel a lot of support here. We also have a good history at this track but it will be a big challenge to keep that winning run going; we have seen the competition is very tough. We had a smooth Friday, with no issues on the cars. We don’t look the fastest right now, but we have been working on the race set-up and it has been a positive day. It’s going to be tight so we have to keep pushing to extract all the performance we can.”

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):

“It’s nice to be back in Japan and racing at Fuji Speedway again. This weekend I am doing the qualifying so today I spent time preparing for that. So far, we’re not at the top but I feel like we have room to improve and I’m excited to drive the car on low fuel, with new tyres, on an attack lap. It is going to be a special experience because it’s my home race and my first Hypercar qualifying in WEC. For the race, it feels like there is a lot of tyre degradation, so we need to manage that. We have started well so hopefully we can do a good job this weekend. I’m looking forward to it.”