Mike Conway  was back on the podium last weekend at the latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with his teammates in the Toyota. 
Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in the #6 TS050 HYBRID overcame a difficult start to the event, which saw them miss Thursday practice due to an accident, to finish in third position. A result which elevates them to second in the drivers’ World Championship.

At just 4.304km, the Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigues is the shortest on the WEC calendar and this forced the LMP1 cars to regularly fight their way through lapped traffic, creating an action-packed race with occasional contact.

After 90 minutes one such incident saw Mike, at the wheel of the #6, clash with an LMP2 car, earning him a drive through penalty which cost 20 seconds. The car was, however, not damaged.

Soon after half distance, an exciting race took another twist when rain struck. Mike’s teammate, Stéphane, running fourth at that stage, immediately brought the #6 TS050 HYBRID in for wet tyres to cope with the increasingly slippery track.

Position changes were frequent and the #6 ran third until the #7 Audi, on hybrid intermediate tyres, got past. But two excellent overtakes of the #2 Porsche for third either side of a tyre change for slicks, placed the #6 Toyota team in the podium positions once again.

Soon the #6 moved ahead of the #7 Audi for second place prior to its final pit stop, when hybrid intermediate tyres were fitted in anticipation of rain during the final laps.

Despite the changeable weather conditions, the car was brought safely home in third place for the #6 crew’s third podium of the season, just 8.267 seconds behind the second-placed Audi #7 and on the same lap as the race-winning #1 Porsche.

Mike was understandably delighted on the weekend’s result achieved despite the team missing Thursday’s practice session and starting from the third row.

He said: “It’s fantastic to get a podium here. At the beginning it was looking difficult but my stint was going well until I unfortunately got the drive through penalty. After that the pace was good and we could double stint the tyres which was an advantage. Stéphane did a brilliant job; as the track got drier he just got quicker. It looked like we had a chance for second which would have been amazing but the rain came a bit too late. All credit to the mechanics for getting the car over the finish line; it’s been a big team effort.”

Mike and the Toyota Gazoo Racing teams are back in action in just two weeks, when the WEC field travels north to Austin for the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas on Saturday 17 September, the sixth of nine races this season.