Reigning World Endurance Championship title winners Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa have all but conceded the crown despite winning Sunday’s Interlagos round.
Hartley believes that even after taking maximum race points in the Sao Paulo 6 Hours and moving from eighth to fifth place in the championship, the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID will be playing what he called a “supporting role” to the sister Le Mans Hypercar over the remainder of the campaign.
“We know that the championship is a long shot and were thinking that way before we came here to Brazil,” said Hartley, who along with Buemi and Hirakawa arrived in Brazil trailing team-mates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries by 38 points.
“We thought we were going to be playing a back-up role here, but we ended up winning the race, though I’m not sure it changes much.
“The #7 car is in the better position in the championship and I’m pretty sure we are going to be supporting them over the coming races. I think that’s going to be our job over the rest of the season.
“There’s also the manufacturers’ championship to consider, which Toyota really wants to win again, and we’re going to have to play our part there.”
Hartley pointed out that the championship-leading Porsche crew of Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre “scored good points” in Brazil, which will make any comeback by the drivers of the #8 Toyota that much more difficult.
The New Zealander conceded that the #7 entry was the quicker of the two Toyotas in Brazil and would have won but for a fuel pressure problem early in the third hour that resulted in the loss of three minutes when a control unit was changed in the sidepod.
“We got the victory but #7 was flying today — they went a different direction on set-up,” explained Hartley. “They were quicker than us and had much less tyre deg.”
Conway, who was returning to the Toyota line-up after missing last month’s Le Mans 24 Hours through injury, built up a clear lead over Hartley in the early laps and was back in the lead after taking a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement before the second round of pitstops.
Hartley explained that the grip from his Michelin tyres “fell off the cliff” in the closing laps of his opening double stint.
The #8 car moved into the lead when the sister Toyota encountered its problem as Conway handed over de Vries and went on to control the remainder of the race before taking victory by more than a minute.
De Vries and Kobayashi were able to fight back up to fourth, which allowed them to retain third place in the championship behind the Porsche Penske Motorsport crew and Le Mans-winning Ferrari drivers Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.
Conway is seventh in the points courtesy of his absence from Le Mans after breaking his collarbone and two ribs in a cycling accident.
