Hirakawa “Wasn’t Expecting” Toyota Imola Front Row

Toyota driver Ryo Hirakawa says that qualifying second for Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship opener was beyond his expectations, as he missed out on pole by just 0.011 seconds in the updated TR010 Hybrid.

Hirakawa’s No. 8 entry split the two works Ferrari 499Ps in the Hyperpole shootout on Saturday afternoon, falling just shy of Antonio Giovinazzi in the pole-winning No. 51 car but beating Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 by 0.029 seconds.

It came as Toyota employed an unusual tire strategy, running both cars on Medium tires for the first part of qualifying, in which Hirakawa was only seventh, before moving to the mandatory Softs for Hyperpole.

“I wasn’t really expecting that,” said Hirakawa. “To be honest I was really struggling with the car and on the tires up until Q1.

“We made quite a big step into Q1, and finally made a good lap in Hyperpole. There was nothing left.”

On Toyota’s unorthodox tire strategy, Hirakawa added: “With the Medium, I thought I had more opportunities to do laps.

“It was challenging [moving from Medium to Soft for Hyperpole] but that was the only choice I had, so I accepted it.

“I only drove Softs [in the Prologue] but it was in kind of damp conditions. It was not in these hot conditions so it was also a different feeling, moving around a lot.

“But in the end the Soft was quite consistent, I did two push laps, so I am happy for that.”

For his part, Giovinazzi said Ferrari was expecting Toyota to be one of its biggest threats in qualifying as he expressed his satisfaction at repeating his 2025 pole-winning effort at Imola.

“We knew Toyota, especially when we saw them run on Mediums, would be there in Hyperpole,” said the Italian driver.

“It was intense; the conditions were not easy to drive as we had around 15 degrees [Celsius] more track temperature than last year. I did a 1:30.1, in first qualifying [Fuoco] did 1:30.0, so I was not sure it was good enough.

“I made a mistake on my third lap, which was quicker than my last lap. I had a small issue at Turns 5 and 6 [Villeneuve chicane].

“All the cars are really close together and this will make the race fun to watch.”

Asked about the chances of the No. 8 car he shares with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley of beating Ferrari in the race on the updated TR010’s debut, Hirakawa played down the prospect.

”They [Ferrari] look really strong on the race pace,” said Hirakawa. “I think we are a bit behind, but let’s see. The weather looks uncertain towards the end of the race.

“But it feels like we are back in the game, and we can even extract more.”

De Vries Surprised by Deficit to No. 8 Car

In the No. 7 Toyota, Nyck de Vries qualified sixth with a deficit of just over three tenths of a second to Giovinazzi’s pole-winning Ferrari.

The Dutch driver had been third in the first part of qualifying but put the gap to Hirakawa down to a difference in set-up philosophy between the two sides of the Toyota garage.

De Vries told Sportscar365: “We felt better on the Mediums the whole week. Actually I never used the Soft the whole week; Hyperpole was the first time.

”In all honestly I qualified where I expected to be. It was a solid session, I executed a decent lap.

“The sister car made some different [set-up] decision throughout the week to us, and so it could well be that it suited the Soft compound better.

“But that also came as a surprise. Until that point they didn’t seem to have that potential.”

On his ambitions for the race, de Vries added: “I think around top five. There could be some rain, so that could spice things up a bit, but hopefully a top-five finish.”