TOYOTA GAZOO Racing heads to Japan next weekend determined to deliver a result to celebrate for its home fans in the 6 Hours of Fuji, the fourth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The team has won its home event five times from six attempts since its return to endurance racing in 2012 and, following disappointment at Silverstone in August, it is highly motivated to earn its third one-two victory at Fuji Speedway and extend its World Championship advantage.
A large crowd is expected for Le Mans winners TOYOTA at Fuji Speedway, which sits on the foothills of Mount Fuji and just a few kilometres away from Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre where the 1,000PS hybrid electric powertrain is developed and built.
In front of its home fans and many TOYOTA colleagues, the team aims to extend its lead in the teams’ World Championship, which was reduced to just three points over Rebellion Racing by a post-race stewards’ decision to disqualify both TS050 HYBRIDs following the one-two win at Silverstone.
Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso in the #8 TS050 HYBRID continue to lead the drivers’ World Championship, by a reduced margin of just two points from the #3 Rebellion crew, and they are looking for their third win of the season to extend that gap.
The #7 TS050 HYBRID line-up of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López competed very strongly at Silverstone and will challenge for their first victory of the season at Fuji, the scene of Mike and Kamui’s most recent win, in October 2016.
Just like at Silverstone, both crews will use the high-downforce-specification TS050 HYBRID next weekend, with action beginning on Friday 12 October with two 90-minute practice sessions. Saturday 13 October will see another 60-minute practice session and a short qualifying of 20 minutes. The six-hour race begins at 11am local time on Sunday 14 October.
