Le Mans – Toyota is patient

The first qualifying session of the 82nd edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans did not allow Toyota to keep its TS040 Hybrid at the forefront. Although the two-hour session was interrupted by several red flags, the Japanese LMP1 showed a first sign of weakness when Stéphane Sarrazin had to stop at the side of the track due to an oil leak on the engine. No. 7.

The No. 7 Toyota is thus in third provisional position, more than two seconds behind the reference time achieved by Brendon Hartley on Porsche n°20, even if the times should improve this evening. “The car handled very well. Unfortunately we had a problem in qualifying but it is better that it happens now rather than in the race. At least we didn’t lose any time on the track compared to the others.”, comments Stéphane Sarrazin. “Our three drivers are really happy with the car and the balance is good. We will have to test several things (today) in order to progress, but the first day was not too bad. »

The TS040 n°8 of Stone-Buemi-Davidson follows less than a tenth in fourth place. The crew is also confident about their abilities to improve their times. “It was a complicated qualifying session”, assures the Frenchman. “We weren't able to do many laps (12 for each of the Toyotas, 42 and 43 laps in free practice), but it's the same for everyone. The car performed well and we are ready to compete in the rest of qualifying. We seem quite competitive on the long runs but the competition is difficult to assess given that we only completed a few laps in qualifying. We will know more (tonight). »

Qualifying practice will resume this evening from 19 p.m. for two sessions, the last ending at midnight. The rest of the qualifications will be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr. Photos of the tests are available on this link.