WEC 2025 result after Round 5: 6 Hours of São Paulo

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign with a frustrating result in the 6 Hours of São Paulo. Despite a strong team effort, consistent driving and clean pit stops, both GR010 Hybrids finished out of the top ten. How did this happen? Read on for our WEC 2025 review of round five.

WEC 2025: 6 Hours of São Paulo

A return to the podium was the aim after last month’s disappointing fifth place finish in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In this respect, the Interlagos circuit has hosted some significant milestones in the team’s WEC history, from its maiden victory in 2012 to securing the manufacturers’ championship for the first time two years later. Last year’s successful title challenge was also strengthened by a dominant performance in this spiritual home of Brazilian motorsports.

For this fifth WEC visit to São Paulo, however, the team was a driver down, with Sébastien Buemi missing from the #8 GR010 Hybrid due to an unchangeable diary conflict. The line-up therefore consisted of team principal Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries in car #7, with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa making a two-man team in car #8.

Free practice 1 and 2

The first of the two 90-minute practice sessions began in sunshine and pleasant 20°C temperatures. So the team wasted no time adapting the cars to the resurfaced Interlagos circuit and unique demands of its anti-clockwise layout.

Between sessions the drivers provided detailed feedback to the engineers to help identify areas where balance could be improved ahead of the second session, as that block of track time was primarily dedicated to tyre analysis. Thankfully, both sessions passed without trouble, so the team was successful in completing a productive test programme.

Free practice 3 and qualifying

Third practice was a shorter, one-hour session. During this time the drivers briefly sampled the cars in qualifying trim before returning to race preparation and tyre analysis. Although Hirakawa’s lap was the fastest on this non-competitive session, expectations were modest as the team headed into qualifying.

This 12-minute session determines the ten cars that go through to the Hyperpole shootout, and only one driver can be nominated for each car. For Toyota that meant last year’s pole-setter Kobayashi was in the #7 GR010 Hybrid, while qualifying newbie Hirakawa was given the duty in the #8 car. Of the two it was actually Hirakawa who went fastest thanks to a lap with less traffic. His tenth place earned the Japanese driver a place in Hyperpole, where he in turn secured tenth on the grid, less than a second away from the pole position time.

WEC 2025 race: 6 Hours of São Paulo

The race began in sunny weather with Toyota drivers Hartley (#8) and Conway (#7) in tenth and 18th place respectively. Both used a mix of medium and hard tyres, and initially made some progress within the field. But they lacked pace as the opening stint wore on, and at the first round of pit stops both had fallen out of the top ten. Consistent pace on old tyres helped the drivers edge closer to the points prior to the first driver changes, which came after two hours. At this point, de Vries took over the #7 while Hirakawa took the wheel of the #8. Now refreshed with new medium tyres, both set their cars’ fastest laps as half distance approached.

Despite an encouraging overtake late in the fourth hour, the challenge was proving too great and the top ten was out of reach. Nevertheless, at the next driver changes early in hour five, Kobayashi and Hartley resumed the fight before the race was briefly interrupted to remove a kite from the start-finish straight. The last pit stops came early in the final hour, which saw Kobayashi remain in the #7 and Hirakawa take over the #8. As the sun set, the duo ran just a few seconds apart in 14th and 15th respectively, and they took the chequered flag together in that order, three laps behind the winning Cadillac.

This disappointing result means that Toyota misses out on World Championship points for the first time since the 6 Hours of Silverstone in 2018, concluding a remarkable run of 44 consecutive points finishes. The WEC summer break now offers an opportunity to assess this challenging weekend and hopefully return stronger for the sixth round of the season in September.