After an immense team effort to achieve double points finishes in the opening two rounds of the season despite challenging circumstances, the team takes on the challenge of the high-speed Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, a true test of car and driver, and a venue where TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has enjoyed eight victories so far.

The team completed the opening two free practice sessions at the legendary Belgian track to begin fine-tuning its cars ahead of Saturday’s race. They ended with the #7 GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries seventh fastest while Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were 12th in the #8 GR010 HYBRID.

On a mild and sunny day, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing kicked off the track action in first practice, using the medium compound Michelin tyres. In addition to reacquainting themselves with the 7.004km circuit – the second longest on the WEC calendar – the drivers gave their feedback on different mechanical settings.

In second practice, the team’s planned programme of tyre evaluation over longer stints was disrupted by three red flags, which cost almost an hour of the planned 90-minute running time. The session was extended by half an hour and both cars completed a trouble-free afternoon which also involved front and rear body work changes, as well as further pit stop practice.

Detailed analysis of data gathered in the two sessions by engineers and drivers, as well as intensive debriefings before qualifying day, will now guide the team on how to optimise the GR010 HYBRIDs. Third practice on Friday morning is the final chance to compare set-ups before qualifying, which starts at 3.25pm.

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

“It’s nice to be back here at Spa, which is a second home race for the team because our facility in Cologne is only an hour away. With all the disruptions I don’t think anyone could complete the perfect free practice, but it is what it is. We had no problems on our cars, and everything went as smoothly as we could expect considering the red flags.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7):

“I think it has been a decent day in terms of getting through what we wanted to test. We were not sure what to expect coming into the weekend considering that performance-wise things were looking a bit challenging. But I think we are doing okay. This race is going to be all about tyre management, so we need to handle that well.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7):

“It was nice to be back behind the wheel at Spa, which is obviously a very cool track. It’s hard to take much from second practice as far as the big picture goes after so many interruptions and incidents. We are still exploring our performance window and trying to find improvements. We look more or less okay, inside top 10 at the moment, so let’s see what we can do the rest of the week.”

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8):

“It was an eventful day in general, but we had no dramas on our car. With so many red flags and full course yellows it was difficult to get a clear view of the competition. We came here a few weeks ago for a test and we learnt a lot, and today we expanded on that, so now it’s time to look at everything and optimise our set-up for tomorrow. We will make some detail changes to try to extract the most from our car.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8):

“We had a clean day with no issues on either side of the garage. The interruptions were the same for everyone, but it meant there was not a lot of meaningful running. We did test here a few weeks ago so I feel like we are as well prepared as we can be, and we made some progress on car balance between the sessions. So, I think we have maximised the track time we were given.”

Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8):

“There were a lot of incidents which compromised our run plan. We tried to do longer runs, to learn how the tyres behave, particularly on the parts of the track that have been resurfaced since last year. Some corners give better grip, some worse. I think we did a good job in the end and, given the interruptions, we managed to maximise our programme. I wasn’t at the test here so I would have been happier to do more laps, but that’s the situation. I will push hard to be ready for the race.”