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Analysis

Analysis: How Toyota finally ended its WEC victory drought

Toyota came to its home race in Fuji with its sights firmly set on victory – and, thanks to some clever strategic thinking, it got the job done. Jamie Klein examines how the Japanese marque managed it.

LMP1 Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi

LMP1 Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi

Vision Sport Agency

Podium: race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley, #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#5 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson
Podium: race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, second place #8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis, third place #1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#5 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota Racing
#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley, #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
LMP1 Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, #1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
LMP1 podium: race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
LMP1 Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
LMP1 Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, #1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
Race winner Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota Racing
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
Race winners #6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi
#6 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi

It was the closest finish in WEC history, 1.439s is all that separated Kamui Kobayashi's Toyota and Loic Duval's Audi after a titanic six-hour scrap that will go down in sportscar racing folklore.

More than that, perhaps, it was the result the championship needed, particularly amid rumours that Volkswagen is having second thoughts about Audi's future in the LMP1 class.

After a win-less spell of nearly two years, Toyota needed to prove that it isn't just a one-trick pony, and that it remains capable of taking the fight to the German marques all year round, not only at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

With its 1.4km main straight – second only in length to the Mulsanne on the WEC calendar – and relative lack of high speed corners, Fuji was always likely to play into the hands of the characteristics of the TS050 Hybrid, which has never been on its best form at high-downforce 'Tilkedromes' like the Nurburgring and COTA.

The importance Toyota naturally places on winning its home event equally made Sunday's race a big target for the Cologne-based squad.

But with the six hybrid LMP1s split by little over half a second in qualifying, nothing less than the perfect run would have been enough to get the job done for Kobayashi and his teammates in the #6 car, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.

Luckily, a combination of clever strategy, speedy pitwork and some stellar driving – not least by Kobayashi at the end on worn rubber – did the trick.

"We saw we were going to be a more competitive than usual in terms of performance, but we didn't really expect to win," said Kobayashi after taking the chequered flag in front of Duval.

"We were strong at Le Mans, but we weren't so competitive at other tracks, as you've seen at the last few events. We had the performance [at Fuji], but in the end it was really tight.

"So we needed the strategy, good traffic management, no mistakes from the drivers – we needed all of this to win the race, and we made it."

#6 car strategy key

Of course, double-stinting the tyres for the last part of the race was what gave the #6 Toyota critical track position over the #8 Audi of Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis, which had more or less commanded the race up until that point.

But the seed of victory was sown some time before, at the penultimate round of stops, when Toyota brought the number six car unusually early.

The #6 car had been doing stints of 36 to 37 laps pretty reliably from the get-go, with Porsche achieving similar mileage and Audi a couple of laps less due to the smaller fuel tank of its diesel-propelled R18 e-tron quattro compared to its rivals.

That meant Toyota was scheduled to bring Sarrazin in on Lap 183 to hand over to Kobayashi, but instead the #6 hit pit road early, on Lap 177.

This allowed the #6 car to clear the #1 Porsche for second place, Sarrazin having lost the position to Timo Bernhard on-track in the previous stint.

But, after repelling a spirited attack from Brendon Hartley soon after leaving the pits, it meant Kobayashi would face a daunting 30-lap run (instead of 24) to the chequered flag on worn tyres once he came in for the car's final stop on Lap 214.

"I needed to change my driving style, because the wear limitation is really high," said Kobayashi. "So I had to make sure I didn't brake too hard, to not stress the tyres too much, and it worked.

"At some point I was struggling to make the laptime, but in the end I stabilised [the gap to Duval] and then I realised maybe we could win."

At the time of his final stop, Kobayashi admitted he didn't think the margin he expected to gain over Duval to be enough to allow him to win the race – but was pleasantly surprised to find that his advantage over the Frenchman was 14 seconds, rather than the 10 the team had predicted.

"When I pitted for the fuel splash, we thought it was only going to be a 10 second margin to the Audi, which I thought would not be enough," he said. "But actually when we got out it was 14 seconds, more than we expected, so this was key for us to stay in front."

Kobayashi stars

Kobayashi's deft touch rightly earned him high praise from teammates Sarrazin and Conway in the post-race press conference, and Toyota Motorsport Director Rob Leupen was also quick to praise the ex-Sauber F1 driver for what has to rate as his finest sportscar racing performance to date.

"Kamui did an exceptional job today," said Leupen. "If there was anybody who could have pulled off that double stint, it was him.

"He was confident, we saw how quick he was in qualifying, and the car was perfect for him. He had some hard times at Le Mans this year, but we know he's very quick. He's very talented, he just needs more experience, and it would be good to develop him further."

While Audi was backed into a strategic corner with its shorter stints – Duval making the #8 car's final stop on Lap 210 – Porsche's decision to change two tyres on the #1 car when Hartley pitted on Lap 220 (Mark Webber taking the chance to climb aboard for the final stint) seems odd on the surface, when it could have tried the same tactic as Toyota with the bonus of a shorter run to the flag.

But this proved impossible due to the accumulation of marbles on the tyres, which also had the effect of compromising the car's aerodynamics late in the race – effectively removing the #1 crew from contention for a fourth successive victory and setting up the Kobayashi-Duval showdown.

The final 45 minutes of the race made for painful viewing for those in the Toyota camp, not to mention the fiercely partisan 53,500-strong crowd, as Kobayashi's advantage out front was steadily whittled away by Duval, who had the benefit of fresh tyres for his last stint. And after the disaster of Le Mans, Leupen admitted the team was extra careful to not start celebrating prematurely.

"Two years is a long time, especially after [what happened at] Le Mans," said Leupen. "For us this is the second most important race. Still it was close, everybody kept themselves a bit down, with the experience in Le Mans.

"We learned from that it's never over until it's over. We were counting minutes to break it down: you become careful, these kinds of experiences you don't forget."

Perhaps the only minor disappointment for Toyota was that its #5 machine of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima lacked the pace to fight for a spot on the podium.

"The trio that had come so close to capturing the Japanese manufacturer's maiden Le Mans win finished a distant fourth, almost a minute down on the winning #6 car, much to the bewilderment of the team.

"We're a bit puzzled ourselves about that," admitted Leupen. "Normally they are at least on a par with the #6, and yesterday [in qualifying] the car was good. Kazuki said the car didn't feel so good at the start of the race, Kamui had a better start.

"But it was still a good job from them to beat car #2 and keep them further away from our car #6. It could have been better, but we're still happy with the situation."

The #6 crew's win puts it second in the drivers' standings, 23 behind the #2 Porsche trio of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb with 52 up for grabs in the remaining races at Shanghai and Bahrain – two other tracks where Leupen believes the TS050 Hybrid can be a competitive proposition.

"We knew that we would be strong in Spa, we knew that we could be very strong in Le Mans," said Leupen.

"The other races [to target] were Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain, so maybe there's more to come. If you see where car #6 is in the championship, maybe they are allowed to start dreaming now."

It's a tall ask, given that the #2 Porsche crew only needs third-place finishes in the final two rounds to wrap up a title that has looked on the cards since its Le Mans win in June.

But, given how unpredictable the 2016 campaign has proven to be, perhaps there may yet be cause for further celebration in Cologne by the time the chequered flag flies in Bahrain.

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