Toyota rues ‘brutal’ ending after ‘missed opportunity’ at COTA

From seventh and ninth on the grid at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas, the two TR010 Hybrid Hypercars adopted different strategies early on in the six-hour contest – and both were in the mix for honours. 

Following a mid-race safety car period, Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota went on a charge, irresistibly scything past Aston Martin’s George Gamble, Alpine ace António Félix da Costa and – after a crowd-pleasing duel – Cadillac’s Earl Bamber to determinedly fight his way from fourth up to first.

Returning to the cockpit for the final hour in the car he shares with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, the Dutchman set a succession of fastest laps to increase the trio’s advantage, only for a hydraulic issue to affect his power steering and force the #7 into retirement almost within sight of a second victory of the season.

“Obviously, that was a very sad end to a great day,” reflected a crestfallen de Vries. “We really gave it our all and the team executed extremely well. We had a great car, with strong pace and we were in a perfect position going into the last few minutes. Unfortunately, this is a technical sport and that let us down this time.”

“It was very unfortunate,” echoed Kobayashi. “We had been strong all the way through. For almost six hours, we had a great race, but when you lose the hydraulics, there’s nothing you can do. It was a big opportunity for us to score a lot of points, so it’s tough to take, but this is endurance racing. We need to learn and improve so we can come back stronger for our home race.” 

The sole consolation for the ‘gutted’ #7 line-up was that closest title rivals René Rast and Robin Frijns similarly failed to score in Texas, leaving the two crews tied on points at the top of the Drivers’ table with three rounds remaining. 

In the Manufacturers’ classification, Toyota succeeded in extending its lead over BMW from five points to nine heading next to its backyard of Fuji in Japan (25-27 September), thanks largely to a late overtaking masterclass by four-time world champion, Sébastien Buemi. 

The #8 TR010 Hybrid went off-strategy during the first pit-stop phase, enabling Buemi to lay down some quick laps in clean air and consequently cycle through to the front of the field. Brendon Hartley subsequently lost time in traffic while chasing the eventual race-winning #50 Ferrari, before Ryō Hirakawa picked up a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding while sitting third.

The crew then found themselves further compromised by the inopportune timing of a Virtual Safety Car intervention, shortly after making a refuelling stop under normal race conditions – effectively offering their competitors a free trip to the pits and dropping the car to 14th place. A characteristically committed effort saw Buemi recover to sixth at the chequered flag – hauling the #8 trio to just 11 points shy of the summit of the Drivers’ standings. 

“It was a brutal finish for the team,” acknowledged Hartley. “We definitely had the pace to have two cars on the podium, so it hurt to give it away. Seb did a great last stint to bring our car back to sixth, but I’m massively disappointed for the team that car #7 had the issue when it was in a dominant position to take the victory.” 

“It was a really sad day for us because the speed was there,” echoed Swiss star, Buemi. “We did the best we could in the end and salvaged a few points, but it’s really a big opportunity missed. The positive is that the car was very fast, but it’s always frustrating when you lose a good result like that. We’ll work hard and hopefully have a better race at Fuji.” 

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