Kiwi Brendon Hartley and his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing target a return to winning ways when the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) resumes at another legendary venue on 8-9 July for the 6 Hours of Monza.
Just four weeks ago, the team’s five-year winning run at the Le Mans 24 Hours came to an end in an exciting, incident-packed race in front of 320,000 spectators during a memorable celebration of 100 years of racing at La Sarthe.
This week, the team heads to Monza in northern Italy, home ground of Le Mans winners Ferrari, determined to stand on the top step of the podium once again to reignite its World Championship title defence.
Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa finished second at Le Mans in their #8 GR010 HYBRID after an epic battle for victory. Despite narrowly missing the win, they extended their drivers’ World Championship lead to 25 points with three races remaining.
“Pretty quickly after Le Mans our focus moved towards the World Championship battle and the whole team is fired up for the final three races of the season, starting in Monza,” commented Hartley . “It’s not going to be easy, because we have seen how quick Ferrari is, but we showed our fighting spirit at Le Mans, and we are determined to stand on the top step of the podium again. We know we need to execute a perfect weekend and we’re ready for the challenge.”
An unfortunate Le Mans retirement for Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, after their #7 GR010 HYBRID was hit by another car, means their title chances are all but over, at 41 points behind, but they aim for a third win of the season to move up the rankings and contribute to the team’s challenge.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing leads Ferrari by 18 points in the manufacturers’ title race and now takes the battle to the Italian marque’s home ground, the 5.793km Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where Hypercars average close to 220km/h over a lap, the second highest of the year after Le Mans.
Monza has a special place in Toyota’s motorsport history as the location for its first victory in a World Championship race, in 1992 when Geoff Lees and Hitoshi Ogawa won the 1000km of Monza in the TS010 group C car. Since returning to endurance racing with a hybrid-powered prototype in 2012, the team has raced twice at Monza. The #7 crew took victory in 2021 while last year the #8 was the top GR010 HYBRID in second.
The class of 2023 will begin their challenge on Friday, with two 90-minute practice sessions. After a final morning practice, Saturday sees the grid determined in qualifying and the race itself begins on Sunday at 12.30 CEST.
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