Difficult qualifying for TOYOTA RACING

TOYOTA RACING will start the final race of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) from outside the top 10 after a challenging qualifying session for the 6 Hours of Monza.

Sunday’s race will determine which of its crew wins the drivers’ World Championship, adding to the manufacturers’ title already secured by the team last month in Barcelona. However, difficult conditions in qualifying meant both TR010 HYBRIDs missed out on Hyperpole.

 “That was quite tough,” commented Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8). “We had no dry running here until qualifying, so we tried our best to find the best balance. It was not easy without having tested here before, but we tried our best with what we had. We also learned a few things during the session which should help us in the race. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

After three wins this season, a top-five finish in the race will guarantee the drivers’ title for Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa regardless of other results, and they will start from the seventh row, in 14th place, in their #8 TR010 HYBRID.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries go into the race aiming to close a 17-point deficit on their team-mates, but they will need to make up positions to do so from 17th on the grid in the #7 TR010 HYBRID.

Qualifying was the first dry running of the weekend so – having not previously tested the TR010 HYBRID at Monza – the team went into the 12-minute session lacking data about the slick Michelin tyres around the 5.793km circuit.

After morning rain, the conditions – and lap times – improved throughout qualifying as the track dried. Although both TR010 HYBRIDs went faster as the session went on, they narrowly missed out on the top 10 and therefore did not qualify for Hyperpole.

Despite the disappointing grid positions, the team aims to execute an effective race strategy to move up the field when the 6 Hours of Monza begins at 11am local time on Sunday.

6 Hours of Monza – Hyperpole