Good debut for Toyota at Le Mans

Alexander Wurz a profité de la séance de l’après-midi pour signer le quatrième chrono derrière les deux Audi R18 e-tron et la R18 ultra n°3. Avec Allan McNish qui a établi le temps référence en 3’25 »927 à seulement deux dixièmes de la pole réalisée l’an passé avec la R18 e-tron n°2, l’Autrichien place la Toyota TS030 n°7 à 1 »277 du premier temps. Avec 83 tours couverts, l’équipage Wurz-Stone-Nakajima can approach the Sarthe event with optimism. “The Test Day was generally good for us.”, admits the winner of the Sarthe event in 2009. ?It?s positive to have completed the entire planned program and to have even completed more laps than planned. We have to remember that we are a new team in the game and we have a lot to learn. These are just the first steps. Now we have to do our own work to get the TS030 HYBRIDs ready to race. There is so much data to analyze? But it’s something I love doing, as does the team. The History of Le Mans 2012 has begun and so far so good. »

The No. 8 sister car of Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson (Stéphane Sarrazin missed this Test Day after a fall while cycling) is slightly further behind with 2”371 against the #18 R2 following the best time of the day achieved by the former driver Toro Rosso. Anthony Davidson assures that the working base is good to progress LMP1. “Our program went well”, assures the Briton. “We were able to do whatever we wanted. From a personal point of view, it's nice to come back to Le Mans, especially with this new car and hybrid technology. The car responds well and I think we have a good top speed, which allowed us to set good times. It?s a good thing for everyone to be at Le Mans and see the two cars in action. This is a great reward for all the efforts made. The TS030 HYBRID is already well balanced and gave me enough confidence to attack very early in the day. This is a good basis for work in view of the race week. First impressions are encouraging. »

Our special correspondents will come back in detail on the Test Day of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands. The official program for the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be available digitally from June 6 and in paper version from June 11.