No. 7 Toyota Loses Seven Laps After Torque Sensor Failure

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid fell away from contention in the 6 Hours of Portimao after the team was required by the FIA to change a driveshaft due to a torque sensor failure.

Mike Conway was running in second position in the second hour of the race at Autodromo Internacional do Algarve when the car received a black and orange flag.

The Briton subsequently pitted and was pushed into the garage, with the team replacing the left rear driveshaft on the car.

“We were pressured by the FIA to bring our driveshaft data together,” team director Rob Leupen told Louise Beckett on the official WEC broadcast.

“There is an issue, apparently. We have to repair it. That’s why the car came in.

“There was no issue with performance or technically, so this is to comply with the regulations.

“We are changing the left rear corner in order to get the data management and telemetry which is required by the FIA back in place again.”

As part of the Balance of Performance monitoring system, the FIA has torque sensors installed onto the driveshaft of each Hypercar, allowing for real-time calculation and monitoring of BoP-allocated energy per stint.

An FIA spokesperson confirmed to Sportscar365 one of the torque sensors on the No. 7 had failed.

Conway’s car rejoined the race after 11 minutes in the pits and emerged in 31st overall with Jose Maria Lopez behind the wheel, seven laps behind the sister Toyota in the hands of Sebastien Buemi.

Approaching the end of the second hour, Buemi led the race by 28 seconds over the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen, with James Calado in third aboard the No. 51 Ferrari.

United Autosports returned to a one-two formation in LMP2, with Josh Pierson’s No. 23 Oreca 07 Gibson ahead of the No. 22 car of Frederick Lubin.

Lilou Wadoux moved into the GTE-AM lead aboard the No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report