Toyota World Endurance Championship drivers Ryo Hirakawa and Kamui Kobayashi both suffered disappointing ends to their respective Super Formula seasons at Suzuka last weekend.
Team Impul's Hirakawa could manage no better than sixth in the final race of the 2023 campaign, after qualifying ninth and then spending the first half of the race stuck behind the slower KCMG machine of Yuji Kunimoto. Post-race, Hirakawa said he was baffled by his lack of one-lap pace after a relatively strong showing in qualifying for Saturday’s first race, when he was second-fastest in his Q1 group.
It’s been a bad year for the team.” Kobayashi claims no decision made on future Kobayashi’s 2023 season concluded with a lowly 17th-place finish, which followed the KCMG driver stalling in the pits and dropping virtually to the back of the field. Combined with eighth place in the shortened first race of the Suzuka weekend, it left the ex-Formula 1 driver 11th in the final standings - an improvement on his dismal 2022 season but still far away from his career best ranking of sixth.
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