Kobayashi satisfied to be “finally” on pole this season with Toyota

On the Brazilian track, it was the Japanese Hypercars that showed themselves to be the fastest! Where they had only qualified on the front row once this season (during the inaugural round in Qatar), the GR010 Hybrids lock the front row for the 6 Hours of São Paulo. It was Kamui Koabayashi who achieved the best time, a tenth ahead Sébastien Buemi in the sister car, number 8.

The Japanese pole-sitter did not hide his relief at the sight of the overall result of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid, also being delighted to be able to “finally” get a pole position: “The car was incredible, even though we struggled a bit in qualifying this year. We finally get a pole position, which is really good. The team has done a very good job since Le Mans, and that allows us to get pole here. Thanks to the whole team and thanks to all the fans who support us here! »

Interlagos, an atypical route for Endurance

The former pilot of Formula 1 however, expects quite a challenge throughout the 6 Hours of São Paulo. In fact, the Interlagos route is the shortest visited by the WEC throughout its 2024 season. This has consequences on traffic management, the LMGT3s being therefore much more regularly caught up by the Hypercars, but also on the number of laps per relay, higher than all other rounds of the WEC. A final unexpected challenge presented itself, marbles! Indeed, the Michelin and Goodyear tires used in the World ChampionshipEndurance create a lot of these little balls of gum which accumulate outside the trajectory. On a circuit where it was already not excessively easy to overtake, the task promises to be even more difficult...

“It's very tight here, Interlagos is quite a small circuit for endurance races, because we have a lot of cars on track. Furthermore, after the practice session this Saturday morning, we saw a lot of marbles on the track. This therefore makes the track even narrower, because it means that you cannot go offshore otherwise you are guaranteed to slip, even if you stay on the asphalt. That's the real challenge of this race, but it's the same for everyone. Six hours will be really long tomorrow because as the circuit is short, we expect to do a lot of laps per relay. So I think there is quite a risk of having incidents, but I also hope that we can have a clean race throughout the six hours. »

Interlagos also marks the return of Mike conway in the seat of the No. 7 Toyota. The Briton was forced to withdraw from the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a fall on his bike. Conway reassured from the first sessions, he is ready for this fifth round of the season: “It’s great to be back, I missed not being able to be on the track at Le Mans! I'm totally ready, Kamui had a great lap, we're working well this weekend so far, I can't wait for Sunday. »

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