What duels at Spa
The 6 Hours of Spa was a whirlwind of battles and twists until the checkered flag. Toyota tried to shake things up with an aggressive strategy, but in the end the TR010 Hybrid #8 had to settle for tenth place. The #7 instead climbed up to fifth position, which could have been fourth without the late Aston Martin overtake on Kamui Kobayashi. Below are the words of the Japanese manufacturer’s drivers, now second in the standings behind BMW.
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver of #7): “Finishing with a fifth and a tenth place is a rather satisfying result, considering our pace. Today we had to face some difficulties, but we did our best to get a good result and managed to score points with both cars, which is positive for the World Championship. It was not an easy week, but we delivered a very solid team performance. Now we have some aspects to analyze and improve before Le Mans.”
Mike Conway (driver of #7): “Honestly, it probably went better than we expected. At one point it seemed that the #8 could do well with its strategy, but then it was unlucky. We had two different strategies and two different results. I’m happy to have finished fifth. It was almost fourth, but we simply didn’t have the right pace. We scored decent points and now we move on to Le Mans“.
Nyck de Vries (driver of #7): “I have mixed feelings about this race. The #8 had a good opportunity, thanks to its different strategy, to fight for a great result, but it was unlucky. We had a clean race, without mistakes and with good execution, and then we benefited from what happened ahead of us. This brought us good points and we should be happy about it“.
Sébastien Buemi (driver of #8): “We made a great decision to differentiate our strategy, and things were going well. Unfortunately, then we lost all those positions. We will have a bit of a bitter taste, but that’s racing. The #7 recovered some points, which is positive for the team, but we could have done more. We will analyze everything and work to be stronger when it really counts at Le Mans.”
Brendon Hartley (driver of #8): “We finished with a point, but I can’t help feeling disappointed because we were aiming for the podium. These things can happen; it’s all a team effort and we stay united. The positive side is that at one point things really looked promising for us and it was an incredible race, full of emotions at the end. We all fought hard and showed great fighting spirit.”
Ryō Hirakawa (driver of #8): “We had the chance to get on the podium and maybe we could have even fought for the win. To be honest, right now I am very disappointed. We need to analyze what happened and try to avoid it in the future. Even though it was a frustrating result for our car, Le Mans is the next race, so we have to give our best for that and we will work hard.”
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