Toyota fears “big gap” to rivals in Monza WEC after worst qualifying of 2026
Toyota is expecting to face a “big gap” to its rivals in Sunday's final round as it braces for what could be its toughest race of the season
Toyota's Ryo Hirakawa expressed concern over the team's likely performance in the Monza World Endurance Championship finale, after the Toyota TR010 Hybrids secured 15th and 16th positions in qualifying. The Japanese manufacturer struggled in both wet and dry conditions during the three practice sessions, without having completed any representative running on slick tyres.
Hirakawa admitted the team was "too slow" and required improvement to secure a competitive finish in the 6-hour race. Despite Toyota's strong operational performance throughout the 2026 WEC, driven by Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley, Hirakawa believed a significant performance boost was necessary to close the gap on rivals.
The team currently holds a 17-point lead in the standings, and with only 25 points available in the final round, a poor result could hand the drivers' title to the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing team of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi. Toyota's technical director David Floury attributed the team's poor qualifying performance to a lack of dry running and the car's underlying pace, while stating that both cars will have more freedom to adopt their own strategies during the race, given the secured manufacturers' title.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Sports's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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