No Toyota in Hyperpole: a first!
History does not always go in the right direction: with the disqualification of Toyota No. 7, none of the two GR010s will be in Hyperpole this Thursday. Unprecedented in the Hypercar era. It is also a rare fact that the Japanese brand is not in the top 10 of the qualifications since the creation of the WEC in 2012.
Two years ago, Toyota was single-handedly keeping a suffocating WEC afloat, after the departure of manufacturers one after the other. The competition arrived en masse and the world’s top manufacturer had to once again face opponents of its own caliber.
Last year, only Ferrari managed to deprive Toyota of a victory: the most important one, at Le Mans. The rest, the Japanese won it.
And this year, it seems to be a tough year for Toyota: only one victory, one podium (at Imola). At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the qualifying session witnessed a thunderbolt, as both Japanese cars were excluded from the Hyperpole, following the disqualification of car No. 7.
This has never been seen since this qualification system was put in place. And, in all of Toyota’s participations in WEC since 2012, the Japanese manufacturer had never been ranked beyond even the Top 10 overall!
This does not mean the end for the brand from the Land of the Rising Sun, as even the top favorites like Porsche struggled, with only two prototypes making it to Hyperpole out of six possible. What will matter the most is race management, as 24 hours are more than enough to witness unexpected turn of events. They will first have to digest this unprecedented setback.
