Buemi expects Toyota's Le Mans advantage to shrink

Sebastien Buemi believes Toyota's sizeable advantage over its non-hybrid LMP1 rivals during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans will not be as great in the race, adding that pundits are underestimating the challenge that faces the Japanese manufacturer.

Toyota is the sole hybrid manufacturer racing in LMP1 at Le Mans this year, having been joined in the premier class of sports car racing by a number of privateer non-hybrid cars in the wake of Porsche's departure from the category at the end of last year.

Toyota heads into this year's race chasing an elusive maiden Le Mans victory, and locked out the top two positions in qualifying on Thursday night, with Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima sharing the car that will start on pole.

Nakajima's lap time was 2.8 seconds faster than that of the quickest non-hybrid car in qualifying, with the final timesheets extending the advantage to four seconds after Rebellion Racing's Thomas Laurent lost his fastest time after failing to stop for scrutineering during the session.

Efforts have been made to rein in Toyota's advantage and create closer competition at the front of the pack, and Buemi feels the big gap in qualifying is not representative of how the race will play out on Saturday and Sunday.

"Yesterday we drove our qualification mode. It is not really something we can do over many laps, we can do only one time," Buemi told Crash.net.

"In terms of gaps, in qualy, it’s a bit bigger than it actually is in real life. In real life, we are more with what we’ve seen in practice or at the test day, less than a second.

"Less than a second around a lap like this, it’s not much. If we have a problem and we stay 20 minutes in the garage, and one guy has no problems, he wins."

Asked if the challenge facing Toyota was being underestimated, Buemi said: "Of course, it’s completely underestimated.

"Everyone thinks it’s only Toyota’s race to lose. On paper, it is. But to be honest, to win that race, even when Audi was coming here for five or six years without anyone, it’s not so easy. We have two cars. Anything can happen.

"In practice you saw how many people went off, everywhere, every five minutes there is a slow zone. One guy goes off and hits you, what can you do? The race could be over, and that’s it."

Buemi and Nakajima were part of the Toyota crew that came within one lap of winning Le Mans in 2016, only for an issue on the car to force them into an agonising retirement, denying the marque a possible maiden victory in the endurance classic.