TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is ready to race for the first time in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season after a qualifying day of mixed emotions at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar.
As reigning manufacturers’ World Champions, the team begins its title defence against 18 Hypercars from seven other manufacturers in the 10-hour Qatar 1812km, the first of eight races this season.
The first qualifying of the season saw Nyck de Vries earn a competitive seventh place in the #7 GR010 HYBRID he shares with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi. However, Brendon Hartley suffered a difficult session and ended up 17th in the #8 GR010 HYBRID he drives alongside Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.
In cooler temperatures compared to last week’s Prologue, the team faced a challenge in the 12-minute qualifying session, when all 18 Hypercars fought for the 10 places in Hyperpole. Nyck made it through in ninth place, but Brendon suffered a spin and another off-track moment on his two flying laps, meaning the #8 GR010 HYBRID missed out on Hyperpole after not setting a representative lap time.
In Hyperpole, 10 cars battled for 10 minutes for the leading grid spots and Nyck, who earned an excellent second place on the grid in Qatar last year, maximised the potential of his GR010 HYBRID on new medium compound Michelin tyres to take seventh, 0.920secs behind the pole position #51 Ferrari.
Despite starting in the midfield, the team is inspired by its display in Qatar last year, when it overcame a performance deficit to earn a double points finish which proved decisive in winning the manufacturers’ World Championship. The team’s quest for another strong result with both cars begins when the Qatar 1812km starts at 2pm (midday CET) on Friday.
Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “We are reasonably satisfied with seventh place because this was pretty much the maximum we could do. We haven’t been the strongest this week and it’s been a challenge up to now. So, to put ourselves in the mix today was important for the race. It will be a tough one. We want to have a good, clean race, capitalise on opportunities that come our way and hopefully score a lot of points.”
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “That was not a nice qualifying. I didn’t get enough tyre temperature for my first push lap and was already behind in the first sector. Then I bottomed the car in turn 15 and it spun me around. I tried for another flying lap but also bottomed in turn 12 and went off, so I didn’t actually set a lap time. We need to look at the data, because I felt like I was taking the same lines as in practice. The positive side is that I feel me, Séb and Ryo have been really on it in practice, and we have a really good feeling in the car, so I am going to try to quickly forget about this qualifying and focus on the race.”
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