Here's the thing about endurance racing: it can hand you the world and take it away in the exact same breath. Barely ten minutes from the end of last Sunday's Lone Star Le Mans on 6 September, Toyota was sitting pretty, looking entirely ready to build some proper breathing space over BMW in the FIA World Endurance Championship fight. Then motorsport decided to show its cruel side.
Things started from seventh and ninth on the grid at Circuit of The Americas for the two TR010 Hybrid Hypercars, both squads running different strategies early in the six-hour contest. After a mid-race safety car, Nyck de Vries climbed into the #7 machine and went on an absolute tear. He sliced past Aston Martin's George Gamble, Alpine ace António Félix da Costa, and engaged in a crowd-pleasing duel with Cadillac's Earl Bamber to surge from fourth to the lead. Handing the car back over for the final hour to complete the stint alongside teammates Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, de Vries banged out a succession of fastest laps to stretch their advantage. But a hydraulic issue suddenly hit the power steering, forcing the #7 into retirement almost within sight of a second victory of the season.
“Obviously, that was a very sad end to a great day,” reflected a crestfallen de Vries. “We really gave it our all and the team executed extremely well. We had a great car, with strong pace and we were in a perfect position going into the last few minutes. Unfortunately, this is a technical sport and that let us down this time.”
Kobayashi echoed the pain: “It was very unfortunate. We had been strong all the way through. For almost six hours, we had a great race, but when you lose the hydraulics, there’s nothing you can do. It was a big opportunity for us to score a lot of points, so it’s tough to take, but this is endurance racing. We need to learn and improve so we can come back stronger for our home race.”
The only silver lining for the gutted #7 crew was that closest title rivals René Rast and Robin Frijns also failed to score in Texas, leaving both crews tied on points at the top of the Drivers’ table with three rounds remaining. In the Manufacturers’ standings, Toyota actually managed to stretch its lead over BMW from five points to nine as they head to Fuji in Japan from 25 to 27 September. That came down to a late overtaking masterclass from none other than four-time world champion Sébastien Buemi.
The #8 TR010 Hybrid went off-strategy during the first pit-stop phase, which let Buemi hammer out rapid laps in clean air and cycle through to the front. Brendon Hartley later lost time fighting through traffic while chasing the eventual race-winning #50 Ferrari, and Ryō Hirakawa copped a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane while running third. An inopportune Virtual Safety Car right after a normal refuelling stop handed rivals a free pit trip and dumped the #8 down to 14th place. Buemi put his head down for a characteristically committed charge, clawing the car back to sixth at the chequered flag to leave that trio 11 points off the summit of the Drivers' standings.
“It was a brutal finish for the team,” acknowledged Hartley. “We definitely had the pace to have two cars on the podium, so it’s hurt to give it away. Seb did a great last stint to bring our car back to sixth, but I’m massively disappointed for the team that car #7 had the issue when it was in a dominant position to take the victory.”
“It was a really sad day for us because the speed was there,” added Swiss star Buemi. “We did the best we could in the end and salvaged a few points, but it’s really a big opportunity missed. The positive is that the car was very fast, but it’s always frustrating when you lose a good result like that. We’ll work hard and hopefully have a better race at Fuji.”
