Toyota Fixed Running Order, Orchestrated Alonso’s WEC Win at Spa

Fans now know when they go to see a WEC race it's really an orchestrated parade
Fans now know when they go to see a WEC race it's really an orchestrated parade

Toyota officials revealed on Sunday that they purposely froze the running order in the closing stages of Saturday's World Endurance Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps, which was won by two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso for Toyota.

Pascal Vasselon, Toyota's technical boss who oversees the running of both TS050 Hybrid racers, admitted that all six drivers had agreed to "not racing each other" after the final scheduled pit stop of the six-hour race. According to Motorsport, the lineup of superstar drivers could race each other from the start of the race until the last pit stop, which is when Toyota decided they should remain in place and not take any chances.

"The agreement was that the cars could race until the last pit stop and actually the two cars joined (came together) at the last pit stop," Vasselon told Motorsport.

"We told the drivers they could race only to the last pit stop because we did not want to have the last laps with a lot of tension."