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Toyota Driver Sets Le Mans Lap Record
Kamui Kobayashi set a lap record with a time of just under three minutes and 15 seconds during qualifying runs in his Toyota TS050 Hybrid around the 24 Hours of Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe course to earn the pole position at this weekend’s endurance race.
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Kamui Kobayashi set a lap record with a time of just under three minutes and 15 seconds during qualifying runs in his Toyota TS050 Hybrid around the 24 Hours of Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe course to earn the pole position at this weekend’s endurance race.
Kobayashi’s time, which was aided by a lack of traffic due to a prior caution flag, bested the previous record by more than two seconds. His average speed of 156.5 mph narrowly eclipsed the previous best set by Hans-Joachim Stuck in a Porsche in 1985.
Kobayashi will be joined by his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin, who will share driving duties during the 24-hour race. A second car, with drivers Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, will start in the second position.
A pair of Porsche 919 Hybrids earned the third and fourth positions in the second row. Porsche won last year’s race, overtaking the Buemi-Davidson-Nakajima Toyota car when it broke down on the final lap.
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