TOYOTA GAZOO Racing collects points at Spa

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing overcame a difficult and eventful 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps to score points in the third round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Belgium.

In the final race before the Le Mans 24 Hours, the team battled through contact with other cars, penalties and a performance deficit to secure points in its defence of the World Championship thanks to a major effort from the drivers, engineers and mechanics.

World champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, finished sixth. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries followed up their victory at Imola with a seventh-place finish in the #7 GR010 HYBRID.

Although this result ended the team's run of seven wins at Spa, they remain firmly in contention for the world championship, second in the standings and just 23 points behind leader Porsche ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

A record crowd of 88,100 gathered at Spa on a hot and sunny day for the start, as 19 Hypercars battled for position on the opening lap, setting the tone for an incident-packed race.

Sébastien lined up on the grid in sixth place, but was hit by another car at the first corner before ending up in ninth place. He dropped back again due to a five-second penalty for exceeding the permitted energy consumption on the formation lap.

As the battle wore on, the race was extremely eventful with numerous safety cars. In the second half of the race, an accident on the track led to a two-hour red flag to repair the safety barriers. The race resumed with one hour and 44 minutes to go. Sébastien Buemi's #8 car finally crossed the finish line in 6th place.

The team’s focus now switches immediately to the highlight of the WEC season, the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 2024-specification GR010 HYBRIDs will hit the Circuit de la Sarthe for the first time on Sunday 9 June at the official test day, before the race itself on 15-16 June.

“It was an eventful race once again. I didn’t have such a good start, and I got pushed around badly. We got a penalty before the race even started which was very annoying and we need to get to the bottom if it. After that we worked hard to fight back. The result is not ideal, but we have to live with it. At least we finished with both cars and scored points, but we were hoping for a bit more.” Sébastien Buemi