It was a difficult weekend for Mike Conway and his Toyota Racing teammates at the 6 hours of Sao Paulo in the World Endurance Championship.

After winning the Le Mans 24 Hours last month, the team faced challenging circumstances throughout the week in Brazil. A difficult qualifying meant that both cars needed to move through the field to score points, but race incidents limited their progress.

Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries made up positions to finish 12th in their #7 TR010 HYBRID, one lap behind the race-winning #15 BMW. In the #8 TR010 HYBRID, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa lost several minutes due to a suspension change after being hit by a rival, and finished 17th.

Despite the disappointing result, TOYOTA RACING still leads the manufacturers’ World Championship, now by five points over BMW M Team WRT at the halfway point in the season. The #7 TR010 HYBRID crew are tied with the #20 BMW drivers in the lead of the drivers’ standings, while the #8 crew are fifth, 19 points behind.

Conway started from 17th following a grid penalty, and the #7 car’s troubles continued in the opening stages. A five-second penalty for a start infringement was followed by a drive-through for a full course yellow infraction in the second hour. Incidents and penalties elsewhere helped the #7 gain places and move closer to the top 10. However, further progress proved impossible over the remaining hours of a race which ended in fog and falling temperatures.

Following its frustrating week in Brazil, TOYOTA RACING now has an eight-week break to regroup and return stronger for the next round of the WEC season, the Lone Star Le Mans on 6 September, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Speaking after the weekend, Conway said: “I’m disappointed with my race because I made a couple of mistakes, including the full course yellow penalty. It’s not the performance we wanted so we need to regroup now and bounce back in Austin.”