The Latest Breaking News from Kamui Kobayashi

Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director, described the opening two days of the Spa 6 Hours meeting “as not our best race weekend so far”, despite Kamui Kobayashi taking pole position in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID.

Poleman Kobayashi, who inherited the top spot after Ferrari's Antonio Giovinazzi had his best lap deleted for a track limits infringement, made the comments after Brendon Hartley crashed the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID on his first lap out of the pits at Raidillon.

Times set early in the one-hour session were around 20 seconds off the dry pace set on Thursday, but improved steadily before a final flurry of quick times saw several different manufacturers take turns atop the leaderboard.

Giovinazzi’s #51 499P Le Mans Hypercar dipped under the benchmark time set in opening practice by Sebastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota GR010 LMH, posting a best lap of 2m01.871s.

The ex-Formula 1 driver came home 14th at the end of a tough third round of the season, two places ahead of KCMG team-mate Yuji Kunimoto.

If you were to make a list of drivers yet to win a Super Formula race that were most likely to break their duck in 2023, TOM’S driver Ritomo Miyata would probably have been at the top.

After making it through his Q1 group with the third-fastest time, Mugen driver Lawson was only ninth of the 12 cars in the Q2 pole shootout, with a laptime almost a second slower than pacesetter Toshiki Oyu.

Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director, argued that it was unfair that the #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar was forced to make an 11-minute pitstop after torque sensor mandated by the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest on the left-rear driveshaft failed in the Portimao 6…

At the start of the race, polesitter Nojiri immediately moved to the right to cover off a fast-charging Toshiki Oyu, who had made a blistering start from third on the grid to pass Ritomo Miyata for second.