Toyota Racing will line up outside the top 10 for the 6 Hours of São Paulo, the fourth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship. In an exceptionally tight session — just 0.739 seconds separated all 17 Hypercars — the #8 TR010 HYBRID qualified 14th and the #7 car 16th. The Japanese squad still leads both World Championships after winning Le Mans last month.

Toyota Racing heads into Sunday’s 6 Hours of São Paulo on the back foot, with both of its TR010 HYBRIDs starting from outside the top 10 after a fiercely contested qualifying session in Brazil.

A tight session that didn’t go Toyota’s way

The margins in the Hypercar class were razor-thin: according to the team, just 0.739 seconds covered all 17 cars. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa placed 14th in the #8 TR010 HYBRID, while Le Mans winners and championship leaders Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries ended up 16th in the #7 car.

The warning signs had been there. Toyota says its opening day of free practice on Friday was difficult, and although engineers used third practice to work through set-up changes, the pace still wasn’t there — the #8 sat 12th and the #7 14th after an hour of running, hinting that reaching Hyperpole would be a stretch.

Kobayashi and Hirakawa took over for the qualifying runs and pushed throughout the 12-minute session in warm conditions, with track temperatures reaching 27°C. Both improved their lap times steadily but fell short of the top-10 cut-off for Hyperpole by a fraction of a second.

Championship lead still intact

Despite the setback, Toyota goes into the race leading both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ standings following its victory at Le Mans last month. The team says it will focus on damage limitation and points on Sunday to protect that advantage.

“Obviously qualifying was not what we wanted, but we have struggled this week,” said team principal and #7 driver Kamui Kobayashi. “It’s going to be a hard race for tomorrow, but we will do our best to score as many points as we can for the World Championship.”

Hirakawa struck a similar tone, pointing to strategy and the weather as decisive factors. “It was a tough qualifying, but we did everything we could. My best lap was clean, and we maximised our package,” the #8 driver said. “I think we have reasonable race pace, but the weather is a big unknown tomorrow.”

What it means

Starting deep in the field puts extra pressure on strategy and race pace in a series where positions are hard-won. With the title race tightening, a clean run through traffic and sharp pit calls will matter more than raw grid position for Toyota this weekend.

The 6 Hours of São Paulo starts at 11:30 local time (16:30 CEST) on Sunday.

Source: newsroom.toyota.eu