TOYOTA GAZOO Racing made a productive start to round five of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) during the opening two free practice sessions for the 6 Hours of São Paulo at Interlagos.
The second half of the season begins in Brazil and sees a return to action again after last month’s Le Mans 24 Hours, in which the leading GR010 HYBRID finished fifth. At a venue where it has won twice in four visits, including a dominant victory 12 months ago, the team expects a tough challenge to return to the podium against intense competition from an 18-strong Hypercar field.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, who started last year’s race from pole position, ended the day seventh fastest in their #7 GR010 HYBRID. Last year’s winners Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa – competing together as a two-driver crew for the first time in the #8 GR010 HYBRID due to Sébastien Buemi’s other racing commitments – were 16th.
“It’s nice to be back in São Paulo; I really enjoy this track,” commented Hartley. “We experienced the resurfaced track and had two smooth sessions with no issues. We are clearly in a tight midfield battle so we will work hard overnight to find more pace. It was a new experience for me having only two drivers in our crew. The positive aspect is we get more laps, but we do also miss the input from Séb.”
In sunshine and temperatures of around 20°C, first practice began slightly late due to technical issues, but the team wasted no time getting to work on a programme to adapt to the resurfaced 4.309km circuit and establish baseline set-ups. That includes brief spells in the garage for set-up adjustments to tune the GR010 HYBRIDs to the unique demands of Interlagos’ anti-clockwise lay-out.
In the three hours between sessions, drivers provided detailed feedback to engineers to help identify the areas of car set-up and balance to improve ahead of second practice. As well as testing those set-up changes, second practice allowed further analysis of the Michelin tyres. Another 90 minutes without significant interruption, combined with a trouble-free day for both cars, meant the team successfully completed its full programme of analysis and comparisons.
Third practice on Saturday morning offers the team a final opportunity to optimise its cars before qualifying and Hyperpole, which will determine the starting order and begins for Hypercars at 3.25pm local time (8.25pm CEST). The race itself starts at 11.30am (4.30pm CEST) on Sunday.
6 Hours of São Paulo – Free Practice 1
1st #6 Porsche Penske (Estre/Vanthoor) 1min 25.176secs 43 laps
2nd #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Nielsen/Molina) +0.084secs 48 laps
3rd #20 BMW M Team WRT (Rast/Wittmann/Van der Linde) +0.154secs 53 laps
4th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.168secs 52 laps
5th #15 BMW M Team WRT (Vanthoor/Marciello/Magnussen) +0.172secs 50 laps
6th #38 Cadillac Team JOTA (Bamber/Bourdais/Button) +0.176secs 48 laps
14th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.725secs 51 laps
6 Hours of São Paulo – Free Practice 2
1st #6 Porsche Penske (Estre/Vanthoor) 1min 23.508secs 47 laps
2nd #5 Porsche Penske (Andlauer/Christensen) +0.104secs 42 laps
3rd #15 BMW M Team WRT (Vanthoor/Marciello/Magnussen)+0.110secs 58 laps
4th #12 Cadillac Team JOTA (Lynn/Nato/Stevens) +0.173secs 53 laps
5th #007 Aston Martin THOR (Tincknell/Gamble) +0.498secs 57 laps
6th #20 BMW M Team WRT (Rast/Wittmann/Van der Linde) +0.511secs 57 laps
7th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.515secs 58 laps
16th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.063secs 53 laps
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