24h Le Mans
It will be entrusted to Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre, who finished fourth at Silverstone. They will be joined Kazuki Nakajima (n°7). Third in the UK, Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Stéphane Sarrazin (n°8) will continue to race the 2012 version.
Yoshiaki Kinoshita (President Toyota Racing) : "Spa is one of two home races for our team, along with Fuji Speedway, as it’s just 120km away from TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG). So it is the perfect place to debut our 2013-specification car which we expect will show a performance improvement. Audi demonstrated in Silverstone that we need to make a step to regain the race-winning form we showed last year and I am confident our updated car will deliver. Nevertheless, our 2012-specification car remains competitive and it will be interesting to see how the race plays out.”
Alexander Wurz (driver of Toyota TS030 Hybrid n°7, Toyota Racing, LM P1) : “I’m looking forward to racing with the updated car, and also with Kazuki again. Testing has gone well so I’m excited to see what the car can do in race conditions. In Spa you can never predict the weather. If the weather is mixed or wet it’s very challenging, but I don’t mind because Spa is cool in most conditions.”
Sébastien Buemi (driver of Toyota TS030 Hybrid n°8, Toyota Racing, LM P1) : “After my first WEC podium at Silverstone I’m delighted to go to Spa. I like Spa, it is one of the most beautiful circuits in the world. I know it very well as I raced there in many series but it will be my first time with an LMP1 so it will be a challenge to deal with the traffic.”
Kazuki Nakajima (driver of Toyota TS030 Hybrid n°7, Toyota Racing, LM P1) : “I’m delighted to be back competing for TOYOTA Racing; we had productive tests but now I am ready to race again. My most recent memory of the WEC is winning at Fuji Speedway last year so I hope to keep the good run going. We will have two cars with different packages so it will be interesting to see the comparison, keeping in mind that we are preparing for Le Mans.”
Note that three Toyota drivers have won previously at Spa-Francorchamps with Peugeot in the Le Mans Series and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup : Stéphane Sarrazin in 2007, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson were winning team-mates in 2011. They are joined by Marc Gené.
Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO
(Quotes from Toyota Racing press information)
Photo : SILVERSTONE (UK), 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, RACE, 14th APRIL 2013. Driving the Toyota TS030 Hybrid 2012 version, Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre scored the first pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2013, and finished fourth in the race.
