Despite a disappointing double DNF during the 24 Hours of Le Mans marked a difficult start to Toyota's latest major racing programme, the boys of TMG, the Toyota racing outfit, have tirelessly continued working, developing, and fine-tuning the new Toyota TS030 Hybrid race car.
Finally, their efforts seem to have paid off -- the Toyota TS030 hybrid race car will be sitting pretty on the front the grid after the LMP1 prototype achieved its first ever pole position in the weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
A significant margin, the TS030 qualified 0.784 seconds ahead of the Audi R18 ultra and 0.969 seconds ahead of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
Toyota driver Alex Wurz says, "Qualifying was really cool. We expected a really tough fight, especially as the car felt quite nervous in this morning's practice. But the team did a good job on the set-up before qualifying and the car was very fast. The hybrid system was just amazing; it gave a big kick coming out of corners. Obviously it is a long race but to get pole position is a great feeling and it shows the car is very competitive. I am optimistic but don't forget this is only our third race; it will be a difficult race against strong competition but we will go full attack tomorrow."
While positive results are good reasons to celebrate, a good starting position is just half the battle. The real challenge that Toyota must face is whether its pace is capable of staying ahead of the Audi after six hours of all-out war.
Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre will be piloting the pole-sitting Toyota TS030 tomorrow followed closely by Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, and Lucas Di Grassi in the Audi R18 ultra and Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benoit Tréluyer in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
[Source: FIA-WEC]
