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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: Toyota Dominates Sao Paulo
Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre give Toyota first FIA World Endurance Championship victory in only third start...
Toyota scored a breakthrough first victory in FIA WEC competition Saturday in Brazil. (Photo: John Dagys)
Just three months after debuting its factory LMP1 entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota bagged its first victory in dominating fashion Saturday at Interlagos.
Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre took their Toyota TS030 Hybrid to a flag-to-flag win in the Six Hours of Sao Paulo, despite its gasoline-powered prototype making an additional fuel stop than the pair of diesel Audi R18s.
Starting from pole, the No. 7 Toyota bridged out a 20-second gap to the No. 1 Audi e-tron quattro by the race's one-and-only safety car period of the race in the third hour, which also played into the hands of Wurz, who roughly doubled his advantage at that time.
With a large enough gap and a clearly quicker car, the Austrian managed to make a late splash for fuel with five minutes remaining and still cruise to victory, finishing 1 minute ahead of Audi's hybrid-powered entry of Andre Lotterer.
It marked the first defeat of a factory diesel-powered LMP1 car in more than four years. But more importantly, it gave the Japanese manufacturer its first FIA World Endurance Championship victory in only its third start, a feat not many would have predicted at the start of the year.
"It was not easy and we pushed like crazy," Wurz said. "The key was certainly the tire management and we were able to make the difference in the second stint thanks to our Michelin tires."
Lapierre credits the safety car period for helping stretch their mileage. The lone TS030 Hybrid ran on average three to four fewer laps per stint than the Audis.
"We were very close to not making [a final stop]," he explained. "If the safety car stayed out for a few more laps, we would have had the same number of stops as Audi.
"But we knew that we had the lead in our hands. We just had to be very careful in the traffic in the last few stints, because it was really difficult."
Lotterer and co-drivers Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler extended their championship lead in the Drivers' World Championship with a runner-up result, while teammates Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and local hero Lucas Di Grassi completed the podium in third in the No. 2 Audi R18 ultra.
It however, resulted in the first defeat for Audi this year in what had been a dominant streak for the German manufacturer.
"Honestly, I was not really surprised from the beginning," Treluyer said. "I was expecting to have a little bit more tire grip. We were just not on the right pressure and that's why I stopped a little bit earlier in the second stint. And unfortunately, the safety car didn't help us.
"We had a good fight but had a few strategy mistakes, I guess. We'll learn and have to be ready for Bahrain."
A trouble-free run by Rebellion Racing was rewarded with fourth place finish overall, with the No. 12 Lola B12/60 Toyota of Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost coming home the top LMP1 privateer, five laps behind the winning Toyota.
The No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a finished fifth, thanks to a late charge by Jonny Kane, who got around the No. 13 Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Harold Primat with just minutes remaining on the clock.
The top six LMP1 cars all ran without any major issues, with only the JRM HPD suffering a throttle issue in the third hour that relegated the British squad to a ninth place overall finish.
Like, Toyota, Starworks Motorsport enjoyed an equally dominant performance, with Stephane Sarrazin, Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio taking their HPD ARX-03b to its third LMP2 class victory of the year.
The Peter Baron-led squad never missed a beat all race, with Sarrazin stretching out to a more than 40-second lead early on before handing over to Potolicchio at the first stop.
Potolicchio rejoined in second, behind the No. 35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Bertrand Baguette, who made a fuel-only first stop. The Venezuelan, though clawed his way back into the lead, setting impressive lap times against the open-wheel standout.
"The team was [keeping it a secret] that I was catching the leader as they didn't want me to do anything different," Potolicchio said. "Then I started seeing that I was catching him pretty quickly, but I just wanted to give the car back to my co-drivers in good shape and no damage.
"That's what we did. I was able to hold the position and give the car to Ryan with a comfortable lead."
Following a solid double-stint by Dalziel, Sarrazin brought the car home three laps ahead of their nearest competition, in what turned out to be an attrition-filled day in LMP2.
Starworks' closest competitors, the No. 35 OAK Morgan-Nissan of Baguette, Alex Brundle and Dominik Kraihamer, retired in the fifth hour with fuel pump failure. The team's sister entry, meanwhile, was hit with two pit lane speeding penalties, which relegated Olivier Pla, Matthieu Lahaye and team owner Jaques Nicolet to a third place finish in class.
Another pre-race favorite, ADR-Delta, slipped six laps behind in the opening hour after a trip to the garage. The Silverstone winners lost considerable ground in the championship race to Starworks, which walked away with maximum points this weekend.
"It's a great day for us," Dalziel said. "We were disappointed at Silverstone not to get the victory. To extend the points lead... It was definitely won by strategy, hard work and well-prepared car."
PHOTOS: FIA WEC Six Hours of Sao Paulo
Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre took their Toyota TS030 Hybrid to a flag-to-flag win in the Six Hours of Sao Paulo, despite its gasoline-powered prototype making an additional fuel stop than the pair of diesel Audi R18s.
Starting from pole, the No. 7 Toyota bridged out a 20-second gap to the No. 1 Audi e-tron quattro by the race's one-and-only safety car period of the race in the third hour, which also played into the hands of Wurz, who roughly doubled his advantage at that time.
With a large enough gap and a clearly quicker car, the Austrian managed to make a late splash for fuel with five minutes remaining and still cruise to victory, finishing 1 minute ahead of Audi's hybrid-powered entry of Andre Lotterer.
It marked the first defeat of a factory diesel-powered LMP1 car in more than four years. But more importantly, it gave the Japanese manufacturer its first FIA World Endurance Championship victory in only its third start, a feat not many would have predicted at the start of the year.
"It was not easy and we pushed like crazy," Wurz said. "The key was certainly the tire management and we were able to make the difference in the second stint thanks to our Michelin tires."
Lapierre credits the safety car period for helping stretch their mileage. The lone TS030 Hybrid ran on average three to four fewer laps per stint than the Audis.
"We were very close to not making [a final stop]," he explained. "If the safety car stayed out for a few more laps, we would have had the same number of stops as Audi.
"But we knew that we had the lead in our hands. We just had to be very careful in the traffic in the last few stints, because it was really difficult."
Lotterer and co-drivers Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler extended their championship lead in the Drivers' World Championship with a runner-up result, while teammates Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and local hero Lucas Di Grassi completed the podium in third in the No. 2 Audi R18 ultra.
It however, resulted in the first defeat for Audi this year in what had been a dominant streak for the German manufacturer.
"Honestly, I was not really surprised from the beginning," Treluyer said. "I was expecting to have a little bit more tire grip. We were just not on the right pressure and that's why I stopped a little bit earlier in the second stint. And unfortunately, the safety car didn't help us.
"We had a good fight but had a few strategy mistakes, I guess. We'll learn and have to be ready for Bahrain."
A trouble-free run by Rebellion Racing was rewarded with fourth place finish overall, with the No. 12 Lola B12/60 Toyota of Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost coming home the top LMP1 privateer, five laps behind the winning Toyota.
The No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a finished fifth, thanks to a late charge by Jonny Kane, who got around the No. 13 Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Harold Primat with just minutes remaining on the clock.
The top six LMP1 cars all ran without any major issues, with only the JRM HPD suffering a throttle issue in the third hour that relegated the British squad to a ninth place overall finish.
Like, Toyota, Starworks Motorsport enjoyed an equally dominant performance, with Stephane Sarrazin, Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio taking their HPD ARX-03b to its third LMP2 class victory of the year.
The Peter Baron-led squad never missed a beat all race, with Sarrazin stretching out to a more than 40-second lead early on before handing over to Potolicchio at the first stop.
Potolicchio rejoined in second, behind the No. 35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Bertrand Baguette, who made a fuel-only first stop. The Venezuelan, though clawed his way back into the lead, setting impressive lap times against the open-wheel standout.
"The team was [keeping it a secret] that I was catching the leader as they didn't want me to do anything different," Potolicchio said. "Then I started seeing that I was catching him pretty quickly, but I just wanted to give the car back to my co-drivers in good shape and no damage.
"That's what we did. I was able to hold the position and give the car to Ryan with a comfortable lead."
Following a solid double-stint by Dalziel, Sarrazin brought the car home three laps ahead of their nearest competition, in what turned out to be an attrition-filled day in LMP2.
Starworks' closest competitors, the No. 35 OAK Morgan-Nissan of Baguette, Alex Brundle and Dominik Kraihamer, retired in the fifth hour with fuel pump failure. The team's sister entry, meanwhile, was hit with two pit lane speeding penalties, which relegated Olivier Pla, Matthieu Lahaye and team owner Jaques Nicolet to a third place finish in class.
Another pre-race favorite, ADR-Delta, slipped six laps behind in the opening hour after a trip to the garage. The Silverstone winners lost considerable ground in the championship race to Starworks, which walked away with maximum points this weekend.
"It's a great day for us," Dalziel said. "We were disappointed at Silverstone not to get the victory. To extend the points lead... It was definitely won by strategy, hard work and well-prepared car."
PHOTOS: FIA WEC Six Hours of Sao Paulo
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