Toyota #8 trio discuss Le Mans test after third place finish

Beaten to top spot by two Penske Porsche’s, the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendeon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa finished third fastest during Sunday’s second day of testing at Le Mans.

Buemi started the six-hour test in the car before ending the day out on track and was happy with how the day went.

Buemi said: “Obviously its’s always a great pleasure to be back at Le Mans. We had good weather, which may not be the case all through race week, and I was able to do quite a few laps.

“I started the day and finished it, so I saw a big track improvement but the car feels quite good and I am quite happy with how the day went.

“We have time to look at the data and see what we can improve for Wednesday.”

A four-time winner of the race, Buemi is the most experienced and successful driver in the #8 car.

However, Hartley is also very experienced around the Circuit de la Sarthe, winning the event in 2017 with Porsche, and again in 2020 and 2022 with Toyota.

“It’s really nice to be back at Le Mans,” said Hartley. “Every year when I come back here it is a real pleasure; it feels like we are back at home.

“It was a smooth day with no real drama and we got through the majority of the run plan. There were a few red flags and safety cars but that’s the same for everyone.

“It looks promising for us at this stage. We never know what everyone is doing. but it’s been a positive start.”

Hirakawa also got some seat time on Sunday as he tested several different components.

Hirakawa added: “We tested a lot of different options and it has been a useful day. We ran through our programme and now we will focus over the next few days on investigating the data and improving the set-up for race week.

“So far everything looks reasonable but we still need to improve a bit to catch up to our competitors. I am sure we can improve further for race week.”