Toyota’s Title Weekend Opened in the Rain, a Step Behind

Toyota’s two TR010 Hybrids were 12th and 17th fastest after a rain-soaked Friday of practice at Monza. One of them will be crowned World Endurance Championship drivers’ champion on Sunday regardless of where it finishes.

The #8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa leads the standings by 17 points and only needs a top-five finish in the 6 Hours of Monza to take the title. The #7 car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, the Le Mans winners, can still win it with a first or second place combined with a bad day for their teammates. Toyota already has the manufacturers’ championship after its one-two in Barcelona last month, so the only question left is which crew.

Friday was not a day for answering it. According to Toyota Racing’s practice report, the first session ran in persistent rain with the air at about 10 degrees Celsius and was stopped three times by red flags, and the team spent it working on mechanical and aerodynamic setups. Hirakawa, back from scoring a point on his Formula 1 debut in Mexico, set the #8’s best lap for 11th, 2.217 seconds behind the pace-setting #35 Alpine. Kobayashi’s best put the #7 in 14th, 4.455 seconds off.

The rain stopped early in the second session, and the track dried enough for slick tires in the final 15 minutes. A late lap from Hirakawa left the #8 12th, 3.315 seconds behind the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, while Conway, in his final WEC event before retirement, set the #7’s fastest time as the surface dried and finished 17th, 5.234 seconds back. Toyota last raced at Monza in 2023, and Buemi said the circuit "has changed a lot since we last raced here," with new asphalt and new curbs.

The drivers did not dress up the day. "They were difficult conditions for us, and we seem to be lacking a bit of pace," said Kobayashi, who is team principal as well as a driver. "So it’s a disappointing start but we still have one more practice session to go in the morning and we will do our best to find more performance." Hartley was more specific about where the deficit comes from: "Some of our competitors have tested here and look to be a step ahead. We are lacking a bit of pace so hopefully we get some dry running tomorrow before the race to work on that." De Vries called it "a pity we haven’t been able to do proper laps in the dry," since the team expects a dry race and wanted a read on its pace before it.

Hirakawa was the most upbeat of the six. "We optimised the car for FP2, which gave us slightly better pace and a better feeling in the car," he said. "We have built a bit of positive momentum, but the leading cars are quite fast." Toyota says the rain risk drops on Saturday, which brings a final practice session in the morning before qualifying and Hyperpole for the Hypercars at 3 pm local time. Sunday’s race starts at 11 am Central European Time, which is 5 am Eastern, and the forecast is dry.

The Toyota Report Take

A practice sheet in the wet is the least reliable piece of paper in motorsport, and Toyota has every reason to treat Friday as a setup day rather than a warning. The arithmetic still favors the #8 crew, because fifth place clinches and a 17-point cushion is a lot to lose in one race. What should bother the team is Hartley’s line about rivals having tested at Monza, because on a circuit that is all straights and braking zones a week of private running is worth more than a tenth or two. A dry Saturday morning is now the most important session of Toyota’s year, and if the gap to the Ferraris and Alpines is still three seconds after it, Sunday will be about surviving to fifth rather than racing for the win, which would be a strange way for a championship team to close the season.