Toyota Gazoo Racing ready for Hypercar class for 6 Hours of Monza

MANILA: Toyota Gazoo Racing is ready for the Hypercar challenge of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season in Italy for the 6 Hours of Monza. 

Fresh from its fifth consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours win, and the second with its GR010 Hybrid Hypercar, the team begins the concluding half of the 2022 WEC season at the renowned 5.793 kilometer parkland circuit near Milan, known as the "Temple of Speed."

Victory at Le Mans for Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa, in their number 8 GR010 Hybrid, rocketed the trio back into the World Championship fight and they travel to Monza just three points behind the leading Alpine drivers.

Reigning World Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, who share the number 7 GR010 Hybrid, finished a close second at Le Mans and are also still in title contention. They need a strong second half of the season, however, to overhaul a 20-point deficit in the championship race.

The final races of the Le Mans 2022 season see a new Hypercar contender enter the class. Starting in Monza, Peugeot will compete with two cars to make it a fight between four manufacturers for top-class honors.

Toyota and Peugeot have regularly competed against each other in endurance racing, dating back to Toyota’s first Le Mans in 1985 when a Toyota Tom's 85C car finished 12th, five places ahead of the highest-placed WM Peugeot.

In 1992, the two manufacturers fought for the World Sportscar Championship crown. Geoff Lees and Hitoshi Ogawa made history in the first race, at Monza, when they won Toyota’s first World Championship race on the way to runners-up spot in the standings for Toyota Team Tom's. 

The last contest between the two in the top class of endurance racing took place at Le Mans in 1993, a race also won by Peugeot. After a 29-year break, that rivalry will resume this week in Monza for one of the most anticipated WEC races of recent times. 

The 2022 6 Hours of Monza will be held on the historic circuit on July 10, 2022. 

Photos from Toyota Gazoo Racing

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