The team won the season opener at Imola three weeks ago after starting from the front row of the grid but qualifying for round two proved to be more challenging for the two TR010 HYBRIDs on the demanding Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Kamui Kobayashi qualified 12th in the #7 TR010 HYBRID he shares with Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, missing the top-10 Hyperpole shoot-out by just 0.029secs. Brendon Hartley was 16th in the #8 TR010 HYBRID he drives alongside Sébastien Buemi and Ryō Hirakawa.
After the low-key qualifying result, the team will focus on car set-ups, as well as maximising strategy and tyre management, to move up the field on race day.
As one of the team’s two home races – alongside Fuji Speedway – a large contingent of employees from its TOYOTA RACING GmbH operational base in Cologne and Toyota Motor Europe in Brussels will be in the grandstands to cheer on the two TR010 HYBRIDs. The race begins at 2pm local time.
Quotes:
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “Obviously finishing 12th and 16th is not what we expected, unfortunately. I think I did a decent lap, but that was all we had today. We need to find something in terms of strategy and set-up for tomorrow. The race is going to be long, and we will do our best. We have momentum from the last race, so we will try to build on this.”
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It’s been a tough day for us. I didn’t get my first lap together very well. The car was a bit challenging today, and we couldn’t get the set-up and all the tools working perfectly. We have put most of our focus on race set-up and we are going to fight hard tomorrow. Hopefully we can make our way through the field to get some points.”
6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – Qualifying
1st #35 Alpine Endurance Team 2mins 00.808secs
2nd #94 Peugeot Totalenergies +0.215secs
3rd #36 Alpine Endurance Team +0.231secs
4th #50 Ferrari AF Corse +0.373secs
5th #93 Peugeot Totalenergies +0.402secs
6th #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA +0.431secs
...
12th #7 TOYOTA RACING +0.784secs
16th #8 TOYOTA RACING +1.356secs
...
