Sebastien Buemi says the #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid was only the fifth-fastest car in the Fuji 6 Hours, but insisted its unexpected World Endurance Championship win wasn’t down to fortune.
Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley claimed their second win of the season to vault to the top of the standings after a late safety car reshaped the race in Sunday’s Japanese round of the WEC.
The trio was running sixth when a heavy Turn 1 crash involving the #58 McLaren 720S GT3 brought out the safety car with less than 50 minutes remaining. The Japanese manufacturer elected to short-fuel the #8 car, anticipating a long caution period, and saved further time by not fitting fresh tyres.
The shorter stop allowed Hirakawa to jump both race-leading A424s from Alpine, which took a more conservative approach with fuel and didn’t want to sacrifice the #35 car to boost the #36’s victory bid.
Hirakawa ultimately hung on to victory by 0.591s in what was the closest finish in WEC history, allowing Toyota to cement its grip on both the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ championship.
In the post-race press conference, Buemi said he “couldn’t have dreamt of a better race”, describing the result as a “massive achievement for Toyota”.
“Wth the last [safety car], I don’t think it was down to luck, it was down to making the right decisions,” he added.
“We saw that the guardrail would take long to repair and we decided to not put enough fuel in the car. If the race would have restarted directly, we would not have finished the race.
“But we knew it would take some time. We somehow short-filled and Ryo spent less time in the box and exited P1. But then we still had to obviously stay ahead.
“When you look at our averages in the race, I think we are the fifth-fastest car and we managed to win. It’s a massive achievement for us because we definitely didn’t have the pace. We won on strategy and no mistakes.
“You cannot dream of a better race. Obviously, being in the lead of the championship, it’s very special.”
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP
The #8 Toyota started eighth after qualifying was washed out and lacked the pace of the leading cars for much of the race. The crew was also delayed when Hartley spun at Turn 1 after contact with Harry Tincknell’s #007 Aston Martin as it exited the pits.
After recovering from the incident, Hartley said Toyota had “outfoxed” its rivals with the final strategy call, echoing Buemi’s comments that the result wasn’t simply down to luck.
“For the most part, it was almost a faultless race with the pace we had, other than I got T-boned with the car coming out of the pits in Turn 1,” he said.
“I stayed calm, we lost one place at the time. At that point, I never imagined we were looking at the victory. I was still thinking that, ‘okay, we’re getting closer to the championship. There’s still good points’.
“But for the team to pull off that incredible strategy call at the end, a big congrats to them.
“The strategy calls haven’t always gone our way this year. Actually, we’ve been unlucky a couple of times. But this time it wasn’t just about luck. They nailed it and we outfoxed the rest of the field in that last call, and Ryo held on to the end.”
Toyota filled the #8’s virtual tank to 72%, while both Alpines took on around 84% of their fuel allowance for the final stint. Toyota’s technical director David Floury said deciding how much fuel to put in the car ultimately came down to “guesswork”, because the team could not know exactly how long the safety car would remain out while the guardrails were repaired.
Hirakawa had enough fuel for only two more laps at the finish, underlining how finely judged the calculation was.
“It was down to not changing the tyres to gain time in the pits and trying to minimise refilling time. So yes, it’s a bit of guesswork,” said Floury. “You just look at the TV and you try to guess how much shorter the race will be and how much energy you can save.”
Floury also admitted to some surprise about the victory, saying: “I would not have bet on that one, but when the opportunity comes, you have to be sharp and take it.
“We were not good in Austin to take the opportunity we had. We were lucky with the safety car today and it offered the opportunity, so we went for it.”
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