Toyota defeats Porsche at Silverstone

Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima

Toyota Gazoo Racing took a thrilling victory in the opening round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone this afternoon.

Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson took Toyota’s 11^th victory in the WEC after a frantic contest which had drama throughout the six hours.

Buemi made a move on Brendon Hartley with just 12 minutes remaining of the six hours to seal the victory and, in doing so, the Toyota drivers also claimed the famous and historic RAC Tourist Trophy.

It was Toyota’s 11^th victory in the WEC and perhaps its most hard-earned after rain, two Full Course Yellow and one Safety Car period bunched up the field in the fourth hour after Jose-Maria Lopez crashed his Toyota TS050 HYBRID at Copse Corner.

The pole-sitting #7 Toyota had led in stages during the first two hours but after one of several light showers dampened the circuit, the Argentinian WEC newcomer slid off track and crashed into the tire barriers. Incredibly, the car made it back to the pits and eventually returned to action to be classified fourth in LMP1. Lopez was taken for precautionary checks to the local hospital but was later released with a clean bill of health.

Porsche took the fight to Toyota and recorded second and third positions, but were always in with a chance of a surprise victory throughout the afternoon. Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber took second position in the #2 919 Hybrid as the team tried to maximize their low-downforce package, which was at a disadvantage compared to Toyota’s high-downforce bodywork kit.

But Toyota proved slightly too strong and when Buemi emerged from the pits with fresh Michelins for the final thirty minutes it was only a matter of time before he hunted down and overtook Hartley.

Nick Tandy, Neel Jani and André Lotterer claimed third position after being amidst the lead battle for three-quarters of the race in their #1 Porsche.

Jackie Chan DC Racing takes well-judged LMP2 win

LMP2 saw the newly named Jackie Chan DC Racing trio of Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung take a hard-earned win in the category which entered a new and exciting era with more powerful cars this weekend.

JOTA-Sport run Jackie Chan DC Racing became the first Chinese entered team to win a WEC race when the order was shaken up after the Full Course Yellow and Safety Car periods.

The team took advantage and won by almost 20-seconds from the Vaillante Rebellion trio of Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Julien Canal.

Reigning champions Signatech Alpine (Nicolas Lapierre, Matt Rao and Gustavo Menezes) led the most laps in class but slipped back and eventually claimed fourth position behind the TDS Racing ORECA-Gibson driven by Mathieu Vaxiviere, Emmanuel Collard and FranÃ§ois Perrodo.

50,200 fans enjoyed the warm and welcoming presence of the WEC at Silverstone this weekend, and the championship now moves on to Belgium for the second round, the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday 6^th May.

Ford GT wins GTE Pro

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing celebrated a famous victory in the LMGTE Pro class as the #67 Ford GT driven by Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani took an ‘against all odds’ win.

The #67 Ford GT came back from early issues with a loose door and a deflating tire to take maximum points.

The Ford GT had been the quickest of the LMGTE Pro cars all weekend and both the #67 and the #66 cars led for the majority of the race.

After gaining a free pit stop after the Safety Car was deployed in the fourth hour, Harry Tincknell blazed to the front, overtaking the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE for the lead.

Even a late race re-occurrence of the door-opening issue failed to hold back Tincknell who took the checkered flag 15-seconds clear of the James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi-driven Ferrari.

The #91 Porsche 911 RSR of Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz made it three different manufacturers in the top three. The new mid-engined LMGTE Pro car made an encouraging WEC debut but its sister car driven by Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen retired after a fire stranded it out on the circuit in the third hour.

Stefan MÃ¼cke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson took fourth position, while the #71 AF Corse Ferrari came home fifth after delays when Sam Bird was penalized for a collision with Matthias Beche’s Vaillante Rebellion.

Drama from first to last in LMGTE Am

Clearwater Racing took a debut victory in one of the most dramatic and memorable finishes to any WEC class race.

The Singapore team incredibly entered the last lap of the race in third position but finished first as a collision between the leading #98 Aston Martin Racing car driven by Pedro Lamy and the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE entry of Miguel Molina let Matt Griffin through to win the class. It was a proud moment for Weng Sun Mok and Keita Sewa who took their first WEC wins on what was their first visit to Silverstone and their full championship debut.

Earlier in the final hour Matt Griffin had hunted down and overtaken Pedro Lamy in a thrilling fight but then had to stop for a splash of fuel, seemingly handing the win to Aston.

Lamy and team mates Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda had led the majority of the race but saw their advantage cut by the Safety Car. They eventually recovered from the last lap incident to take second position.

Dempsey-Proton Racing took the final podium place in their Christian Ried, Matteo Cairoli and Marvin Dienst crewed Porsche 911 RSR (991).

Toyotas run 1-2 in the early going

Toshio Sato, Team President: “This has been a dramatic race but the first priority is Jose MarÃa and we are all relieved that he is okay after the accident. Despite our strong performance in qualifying, we knew that Porsche would be a much tougher opponent in the race. The whole team performed well and fought right until the checkered flag. Of course it is disappointing not to have two cars on the podium but I am proud of the team for their determination and fighting spirit today, particularly the mechanics who worked so quickly to get the #7 car back on track. Overall I am satisfied with our high-downforce TS050 HYBRID, which showed strong performance throughout this week. Now we need to fine-tune our package for Spa-Francorchamps when we look forward to again fighting closely with Porsche at the front."

TS050 HYBRID #7 (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose MarÃa Lopez)

Race: 23rd, 159 laps, 6 pit stops. Grid: 1st. Fastest lap: 1min 39.656secs

Mike Conway (TS050 HYBRID #7): “Well done to the #8 crew on the victory; they did a great job. It was a good first couple of stints for me but we had an issue with the anti-roll bar so the car didn’t feel right. That affected Kamui’s stint and unfortunately Jose had an incident in the wet. I’m glad to hear he’s okay. The guys did a great job getting the car back out there so big thanks to the team for that. A tough weekend but we had a good car so now we look forward to Spa."

Kamui Kobayashi (TS050 HYBRID #7): “Congratulations to everyone on the #8 car on their victory. Obviously we had a good start in qualifying and the first part of the race when we were leading. But during the last few laps of Mike’s stint we had an issue with the anti-roll bar. The car didn’t feel right and after I jumped in, it was not well balanced. It’s a pity because we could have had a good result. We showed our performance and we will come back for the next race."

TS050 HYBRID #8 (Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima)

Race: 1st, 197 laps, 6 pit stops. Grid: 2nd. Fastest lap: 1min 39.804secs

Sebastien Buemi (TS050 HYBRID #8): “I am so happy with this win. It has been a long time since the last one on our car so it’s great to start the season like that. It was a tough race and really exciting at the end. The car was quick and during the last stint I was on fresher tires so that was an advantage. When I caught the Porsche I knew it was my only opportunity as they were faster on the straights due to their low downforce package. So I had to try something and happily it worked out well."

Anthony Davidson (TS050 HYBRID #8): “It’s amazing to finally get our first win together as a car crew. We really had to work for it today though; we did a great job individually and as team. We read the conditions correctly and made the right call on strategy in difficult conditions, although we were unlucky with the safety car timing. Seb was on fire at the end on fresher tires. Kazuki and I were willing him on from the pits and he did an amazing job. We couldn’t be prouder to win this one."

Kazuki Nakajima (TS050 HYBRID #8): “I am very happy to get this win with Anthony and Sebastien because it is our first win together, even though we have been on the same car since 2015. I am very happy to achieve that. The race was a lot more difficult than we expected; we were a bit unlucky with the safety car and it was difficult with the rain. I was happy with the car but Porsche also had good pace and made it very difficult for us. Seb did a great job in the end; we believed in him but it was exhausting to watch."

Results

Pos	Drivers	No.	Laps	Gap	Gap prev.	FastLap
1	Buemi S. Davidson A. Nakajima K.	#8	197		0.000s	1:39.804
2	Bernhard T. Bamber E. Hartley B.	#2	197	6.173	6.173	1:40.705
3	Jani N. Lotterer A. Tandy N.	#1	197	46.956	40.783	1:40.676
4	Tung H. Jarvis O. Laurent T.	#38	184	13 Laps	13 Laps	1:46.256
5	Canal J. Prost N. Senna B.	#31	184	13 Laps	19.376	1:47.536
6	Perrodo F. VAXIVIERE M. Collard E.	#28	184	13 Laps	1.892	1:46.658
7	Lapierre N. Menezes G. Rao M.	#36	183	14 Laps	1 Laps	1:47.126
8	Rusinov R. Thiriet P. Lynn A.	#26	183	14 Laps	32.247	1:47.241
9	Graves T. Hirschi J. VERGNE J.	#24	183	14 Laps	35.828	1:46.872
10	GONZALEZ R. Trummer S. Petrov V.	#25	182	15 Laps	1 Laps	1:48.090
11	Cheng D. Brundle A. Gommendy T.	#37	182	15 Laps	11.790	1:46.697
12	Beche M. Heinemeier Hansson D. Piquet Jr N.	#13	172	25 Laps	10 Laps	1:46.712
13	Priaulx A. Tincknell H. Derani L.	#67	171	26 Laps	1 Laps	1:57.416
14	Calado J. Pier Guidi A.	#51	171	26 Laps	15.604	1:59.035
15	Lietz R. Makowiecki F.	#91	171	26 Laps	10.981	1:58.193
16	MÃ¼cke S. Pla O. Johnson B.	#66	171	26 Laps	0.906	1:57.856
17	Rigon D. Bird S.	#71	170	27 Laps	1 Laps	1:58.687
18	Thiim N. SÃ˜RENSEN M. STANAWAY R.	#95	170	27 Laps	43.753	1:59.297
19	Turner D. Adam J. Serra D.	#97	168	29 Laps	2 Laps	1:59.483
20	MOK W. SAWA K. Griffin M.	#61	166	31 Laps	2 Laps	1:59.927
21	Dalla lana P. Lamy P. Lauda M.	#98	166	31 Laps	1.768	2:00.295
22	Ried C. Cairoli M. DIENST M.	#77	166	31 Laps	23.547	2:01.283
23	Conway M. Kobayashi K. LOPEZ J.	#7	159	38 Laps	7 Laps	1:39.656
24	Wainwright M. Barker B. FOSTER N.	#86	143	54 Laps	16 Laps	2:00.528
25	Flohr T. Castellacci F. MOLINA M.	#54	165	32 Laps	-22 Laps	1:59.567
26	Webb O. Kraihamer D. Rossiter J.	#4	155	42 Laps	10 Laps	1:47.298
27	Christensen M. Estre K.	#92	95	102 Laps	60 Laps	1:59.117