Victory in Italy for TOYOTA RACING

WECHyperCar

Apr 20

TOYOTA RACING made a winning start to the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season with a double podium finish in a hard-fought 6 Hours of Imola. In its 100th WEC race with hybrid power, the team earned its 50th victory thanks to the #8 TR010 HYBRID of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, finished third in the #7 TR010 HYBRID

Toyota #8 ahead of Ferrari #51 — 📷 © Luc Warnotte at Imola 2026Toyota. #8 ahead of Ferrari #51 at 15:31, still 2 hours 29 minutes to go!

Toyota on the top step of the podium

The #8 TR010 HYBRID started from the front row and Brendon ran third in his opening stint. Gains at the first pit stops initially elevated the #8 back into second, before Ryō took the lead early in the third hour. He established a small gap over the chasing Ferrari, which Sébastien extended in the final two hours. He navigated tricky track conditions during a light shower to hold the advantage until the end.

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “It’s a great story, to get our 50th win in our 100th race, on the home ground of Ferrari and on the debut of the TR010 HYBRID. A lot of credit goes to the team in Higashi-Fuji and Cologne for their amazing work. Their reaction to a tough year in 2025 has been impressive. Of course, this is only the first race but congratulations to the whole team. The execution today was excellent, so I am very proud of everyone.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It’s an amazing feeling. The TR010 HYBRID looked fast even before it turned a wheel, and now it wins on its debut. The team put in a lot of work over the last months to prepare for this first race. It was a real team effort today as well, and it’s not often you take a race victory with a feeling like that. There was an amazing crowd here at Imola and the podium was a beautiful moment. It feels like a special day.”

Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “We couldn’t ask for better than that. It’s our 100th race and we marked it with our 50th win. We made history and we are happy for that. This year we changed the team identity and gave a debut to the TR010 HYBRID. We all pushed hard to start the season well. Last year was really painful for us, nobody was happy with that, but this year we are back in the game, so I am really happy. Well done to everyone in the team.”

Ferrari #51 second

At the green light, the #51 499P, which started from pole position with Calado, maintained the lead or remained constantly in contention for a podium finish, despite the Virtual Safety Car periods that bunched the field up in the early hours. In the middle stints Pier Guidi consistently held a top-three position, allowing Giovinazzi in the final part to make the most of the 499P’s potential and capitalise on the team’s strategy – at a stage when rain seemed likely to wet the Italian circuit, although it allowed teams to keep fitting dry tyres right to the chequered flag – climbing to second after the final pit stop.

Alessandro Pier Guidi 499P #51: “The race was very complicated also due to the uncertainty of the weather, which right to the end forced us into complex decisions that the team handled in the best possible way. We got off to a good start, then we were a bit unlucky with a Virtual Safety Car which, during the pit stop phase, effectively cost us the lead. However, we continued to do our job as best we could and in the end we managed to secure second place, which we have to be very satisfied with.”

James Calado 499P #51: “We achieved an excellent second place in the first race of the sporting season and that is a positive outcome at the end of a race weekend that also saw us take our first pole position. In the race, the fight for the very top positions was really tough: congratulations to our rivals who finished ahead of us. I thank our team, which did a great job: now we will analyse all the data collected in detail to return to the track at Spa with the aim of continuing to be among the protagonists.”

Antonio Giovinazzi 499P #51: “We started the season with a pole position and second place, scoring points that will certainly be valuable for the championship. Thanks to the Tifosi or making the Imola weekend something truly unique and exciting: it is a shame not to have given them a win, but together we celebrated an excellent podium. Over the next two weeks we will study all the data collected, preparing in the best possible way for the next round at Spa with the aim of confirming our competitiveness and striving for the best possible result.”

Toyota #7 third.

The #7 TR010 HYBRID was sixth at the start but fell to seventh. Mike pushed to rejoin the top-six throughout his stint before Nyck made progress. He was fourth before half race distance and claimed third in the fourth hour. Kamui then moved up to second and, on very used tyres, enabled the #8 to extend its lead by holding the #51 Ferrari at bay until finally stopping for new rubber inside the final hour.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “We tried everything we could today to bring home the best possible result. It was quite a smooth race but not easy to find the opportunities to make up places. It was challenging for us, but we managed to get both cars on the podium and start the season with a win, so I’m really happy. Most importantly, our car seems to be strong so that brings us confidence for the rest of the season. Congratulations to all the team who worked so hard on the TR010 HYBRID and to execute the race today. Next we head to Spa and a long season ahead of us. We will work hard and try our best to achieve all our targets.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “It’s a great result for the team and I’m pleased to be on the podium. I think this is more than we expected. It’s awesome for car #8 to win and for car #7 to be on the podium. We gave our maximum and brought home a double podium. It’s a strong start to the season and we’ll try to build on this in Spa.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “The whole team did a fantastic job to execute a very good race and make all the right strategy calls. We split the strategy between the two cars towards the end, and it worked out well. I’m happy to start the season with a podium. We had to work hard for it, so thanks to the team for a big effort here this week from the beginning of the Prologue.” Source: Toyota Racing

Alpine Endurance Team fourth

Charles Milesi, Antonio Felix da Costa and Ferdinand Habsburg with the #35 Alpine A424 end in fourth place and 59 seconds down on the winning Toyota despite running third after the second safety car restart but was passed by the #7 Toyota.

Fifth place finish for the two BMW M Hybrid V8

René Rast and Robin Frijns made a strong start in the #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, but then dropped back due to a drive-through penalty. Over the course of the race, however, the duo fought their way forward again, and Rast crossed the finish line in fifth place after a nerve-wracking performance in the final stage.

René Rast (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 5th place): “With fifth place, we achieved a good result and important points for the championship in the end. Unfortunately, we had to serve a drive-through penalty during the race. At that point, we were ahead of the Toyota that ended up on the podium, so without that penalty more would certainly have been possible. But to do that, you have to do a perfect job, and unfortunately, we didn’t quite manage that today. We need to improve, eliminate mistakes, and add a bit more pace. But generally, it was the first race of the season, with a new crew. We still need to get used to each other, but we certainly learned a lot.” Source: BMW

6 Hours of Imola’s top 5