The chasm Toyota’s WEC rivals must bridge before Le Mans

Despite losing one car from the victory fight through a failure none of its own making, Toyota still dominated the Portimao 6 Hours against its new factory rivals in the top class of the World Endurance Championship. Ferrari, most notably, made gains compared to the Sebring opener, but all of Toyota’s chasers know the performance gap to cutdown remains monstrous.

There was muted celebration, talk of steps taken and progress made, even gaps closed. But for all the other Hypercar class manufacturers there was still the dawning realisation last weekend that Toyota remains out of sight in the World Endurance Championship. The Japanese manufacturer again dominated on the Algarve on Sunday, even if the winning GR010 HYBRID finished a single lap clear rather than the two laps by which the marque triumphed at Sebring last month, and it failed to get one of its two cars to the finish cleanly.

Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa took victory in the Portimao 6 Hours with ease. The only real hiccup for the reigning WEC champions was a slow start from Buemi — “I was too conservative”, he said — that left his GR010 Le Mans Hypercar behind the best of the Ferraris in third for three laps. When he finally got ahead of the Italian car started by Nicklas Nielsen on lap four, Buemi was nearly five seconds down on team-mate Mike Conway.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 32nd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 75 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Autoweek, Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.