{"id":16800,"date":"2016-06-12T11:39:02","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T03:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/?p=16800"},"modified":"2016-06-12T11:39:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T03:39:02","slug":"toyota-is-targeting-an-elusive-first-victory-at-the-famous-le-mans-24-hour-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/toyota-is-targeting-an-elusive-first-victory-at-the-famous-le-mans-24-hour-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota is targeting an elusive first victory at the famous Le Mans 24-hour race"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

Toyota is confident it can convert its recent race-leading pace in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) into a challenge for victory at next week’s Le Mans 24-hour classic in France.<\/p>\n

\"2016_LM_Test_Sunday1_1prlr\"<\/p>\n

Running under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner, the team is campaigning two 1000hp (746kW) TS050 hybrid-powered race cars that have been specifically optimised for the 84th running of the famous endurance race.<\/p>\n

Targeting a first victory for Toyota at Le Mans, WEC 2014 world champions S\u00e9bastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson highlighted the pace of their #5 car which was heading for victory last month at Spa in Belgium before suffering a technical issue.<\/p>\n

“The car feels good and we have seen at Spa that we are able to compete at the front,” Buemi said. “There’s still a lot of work to do in practice and qualifying to get the most out of our car, but the first signs are positive.”<\/p>\n

Davidson, who has twice stood on the podium at Le Mans, said the Spa experience made him even more determined to put Toyota on top of the Le Mans podium.<\/p>\n

Lead driver in the #6 car St\u00e9phane Sarrazin – Le Mans pole-setter on three occasions – said the team has taken a big step with the TS050 Hybrid.<\/p>\n

“The car is really competitive and we showed at Spa that we can lead a race and challenge for victory. I think it will be an exciting race this year and I am confident we can fight.”<\/p>\n

Buemi and Davidson will share the #5 car with Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima, who took pole position in 2014. Sarrazin’s co-drivers are Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.<\/p>\n

Intense development of the new 2.4-litre V6 turbo-charged engine at Toyota’s Higashi-Fuji technical centre in Japan has delivered an efficient and powerful powertrain when combined with the battery-based 8MJ hybrid system.<\/p>\n

In parallel, a new chassis was developed for 2016 at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne with almost all parts redesigned and optimised for weight and performance.<\/p>\n

A low downforce aerodynamic package will make its race debut at Le Mans following a successful test at the circuit last weekend where both cars demonstrated pace and reliability, completing a total of 177 laps and 2,412km.<\/p>\n

This year is the 18th time Toyota cars have entered Le Mans, which is world renowned as the most demanding sports-car race for driver and machine.<\/p>\n

Toyota GAZOO Racing is aiming to improve on runner-up finishes at Le Mans in 1992, 1994, 1999 and 2013, and to move up from second place in the 2016 championship.<\/p>\n

The team will be searching for maximum outright speed while carefully conserving fuel and tyres in the battle for victory against strong competition from Audi and Porsche.<\/p>\n

A true endurance event, Le Mans is even tougher than the challenge of a 24-hour race. In total, there are almost 35 hours of driving, starting on Wednesday with a four-hour practice session followed by two hours of qualifying.<\/p>\n

Qualifying continues on Thursday with a pair of two-hour sessions. The starting grid is decided by the fastest single lap from any of the qualifying sessions.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toyota is confident it can convert its recent race-leading pace in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) into a challenge for victory at next week’s Le Mans 24-hour classic in France. Running under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner, the team is campaigning two 1000hp (746kW) TS050 hybrid-powered race cars that have been specifically optimised for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","category-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16803,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions\/16803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}