The #7 Toyota GR010 just missed the cut to qualify for Hyperpole, setting the 17th fastest time in the 21-car Hypercar field, which became 16th when the #6 Porsche 963 was disqualified.
De Vries set a 3:25.062s to end up 2.215s away from the provisional pole-winning #12 Team Jota Cadillac driven by Alex Lynn.
The sister #8 Toyota GR010 was 10th overall in the hands of Brendon Hartley, who wound up 1.141s away from the provisional pole time.
The ex-Alpha Tauri driver said that while qualifying is irrelevant in the context of the 24-hour race, he said there are concerns the Toyotas simply aren’t quick enough.
“We haven’t been quick,” said De Vries.
“That will be our main priority and focus, because ultimately qualifying isn’t relevant for such a long race, as we saw last year starting from the back, but we need to somehow find pace for the race. At the moment, I don’t think we’re quick enough.”
De Vries blamed a yellow flag on his first flying lap and traffic on his second lap for the lacklustre lap time.
“Generally we are very much on the limit of going through with a comfortable margin. We don’t have that comfortable margin,” he said.
“On my lap, we had a yellow flag at the Porsche Curves with the Alpine, and on the second lap you lose the peak of the tyres.
“I was still on a decent lap but I caught the other Alpine too quick going into the last chicane. I caught him, I came close and I locked up.
“You’re never going to do the lap on the first run, so basically you just have one attempt on the second run.
“I think the first lap would have been comfortable, around P10 or P11. But obviously I caught the yellow flag so I had to slow down.
“In the first run, we were ninth and tenth, and I think that was our position if not the yellow flag and catching the Alpine at the end.”
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Toyota’s drivers all expressed disappointment in the team’s lack of outright pace relative to the front-runners.
In the LMP1 era, Toyota was dominant with its TS050 but has faded in the wake of more manufacturers joining Hypercar.
Toyota hasn’t won Le Mans since 2022 in the first year of Hypercar when it only had Alpine and Glickenhaus to worry about. Now the marque has opposition from the Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, Peugeot, and Aston Martin.
“It was a well-executed session for our car,” said Hartley of qualifying.
“We did a clean banker on the first lap, then I raised my game for the second, and it was a clean one. I couldn’t do much more, we just didn’t have the pace of the front runners.
“I am happy to get through to Hyperpole but unless the track conditions change, it doesn’t look like we will be fighting for pole position.
“On a positive note, the long runs in first practice look relatively strong and that must be the priority for us.”
Hyperpole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway at 4am AEST on Friday for LMP2 and LMGT3. The first leg of Hyperpole for Hypercar starts at 5:05am AEST.
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