WEC: Toyota in dominant force for wet Silverstone World Endurance Championship season opener

Silverstone, Apr 20th 2014 – Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi were deserving winners of the Royal Automobile Club’s magnificent Tourist Trophy in a rain-shortened opening round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship. Toyota Racing celebrated a 1-2 finish in front of a huge crowd of enthusiastic British endurance racing fans, with 43,000 having visited Silverstone over the weekend.

The Toyota Racing drivers led for more than three-quarters of the race and were in a commanding position in the No.8 TS040 Hybrid when the rain began to fall more and more heavily over the Silverstone Circuit.  With conditions becoming potentially dangerous on track due to the amount of standing water, the Race Director took the decision to red flag the event 38 minutes before the scheduled finish.  The No.7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid of team mates Alex Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima finished in second place, one lap down to their team mates, and the No.20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley celebrated the team’s return to top line competition with a podium finish.

The early part of the race heralded the start of what promises to be a drama-filled and action-packed 2014 season.  After all three manufacturers made a solid start to the race, in the tricky damp/dry/wet weather conditions which prevailed, the race promised to thrill the fans and competitors alike.  Very unusually, both of Audi’s R18 e-tron quattros failed to finish the race; Lucas di Grassi in the No. 1 and Benoit Tréluyer in the No.2 both suffered from off track excursions which put them out of the race, the latter causing the only Safety Car period of the race while the Audi was retrieved.  The No.14 Porsche 919 Hybrid was also a casualty due to a hydraulic problem.

The Swiss Rebellion Racing team had a race of mixed fortunes in the LMP1-L category for Privateer teams. The No.12 Lola B12/60 Toyota of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche finished fourth overall and alone amongst the LMP1-L finishers as their teams mates had been forced to retire from the race after only 24 laps due to a gearbox issue.

In LMP2 G-Drive Racing’s No.26 Morgan Nissan, driven by Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal, came out as winners ahead of the No. 47 KCMG ORECA 03 Nissan after a battle from start to finish which saw the lead being traded often.  In the second half of the race the No.47 KCMG was leading the G-Drive car by less than a second, providing the fans with some great entertainment.  Unfortunately this came to an early end because of a drive-through penalty for the Hong Kong entry for speeding in the pit lane during the Safety Car period.  This allowed the G-Drive Morgan to pull away to a clear lead at the chequered flag.

The SMP Racing team had a more difficult transition to the FIA WEC, with the No.27 finishing 13^th overall after an early puncture and a wrong tyre choice in the wet conditions delayed them further still.  The No.37 SMP ORECA 03 Nissan retired after 65 laps due to an issue with the fuel pump.

The next round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship will be at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on the 2^nd and 3^rd May for the traditional dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

Anthony Davidson (no8 Toyota TS040-Hybrid): “It has been a fantastic weekend and it is brilliant to win my home race. The team did a fantastic job all weekend. It looked like it would be an epic fight with Audi and Porsche if it had stayed dry, but we knew the rain was coming and we had set our car up for wet conditions. We made the right call on tyres, the strategy was just perfect; that’s how you win races. It is particularly special to also win the Tourist Trophy and the Richard Lloyd Trophy. It is a fantastic achievement and I couldn’t have wished for a better weekend.”

Nicolas Lapierre (no8 Toyota TS040-Hybrid): “It has been very close since the beginning of the weekend but the team really made a difference today with the strategy. It was spot-on and delivered a dream start to the season for the whole team. Even though we had a big margin it was still nerve-wracking at the end as anything can happen in such conditions. The team did a good job on strategy and this is a nice reward. The first race of the season is always a special occasion so I am particularly proud to win today. It means a lot, not only to win the race but also the Tourist Trophy and join such impressive names.”

Sébastien Buemi (no8 Toyota TS040-Hybrid): “I am really happy with this result and it is a big credit to the team that we can win in the TS040 HYBRID’s first race. The conditions were very difficult at the end; it was really wet and hard to stay on track even behind the safety car. So I think the race director made the right call to end the race a little early. In general the car felt good and this gives us confidence for the rest of the season. But the competition was close and we can expect another big fight in Spa. We will enjoy this great result and quickly focus on the next race.”

 

GT Classes

The rain-shortened 6 Hours of Silverstone was a triumph for Porsche Team Manthey who finished first and second in the LMGTE Pro category. The German marque came out on top after some close competition as has so often been the case with the GTE cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The No.92 Porsche 911 RSR of Marco Holzer, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz gave the team the best possible start to its 2014 season by winning 45 seconds ahead of their team mates in the No.92 Porsche 911 RSR (Pilet-Bergmeister-Tandy).  Third in class was the No.97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke and these three, together with the fourth placed No.51 AF Corse Ferrari all finished on the same lap.

Once past the pole-sitting Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni on lap 12, the two Porsche 911 RSRs traded places for much of the race.  The No.91 held the upper hand for the majority of the event but, as the rain got heavier and heavier the team decided to split its strategy and bring one car in to change from drying wet tyres to full wets.  It was the No.91 which entered the pits, which turned out to be just before the Safety Car came out and this gave the No.92 the advantage which would see them through to the victory.  With conditions getting worse and worse, the Safety Car stayed on track and the Race Director elected to end the race 38 minutes before its scheduled finish time.

In LMGTE Am it was also a 1-2 for a GTE manufacturer but this time it was for the British Aston Martin Racing team.  With the team celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year and racing in front of a large home crowd at Silverstone, it was a popular victory for the No.95 Vantage V8 of the all-Danish crew of David Heineimeier Hansson, Nicki Thiim and Kristian Poulsen.  The trio finished just over a minute ahead of their team mates in the No.98 – Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard.

Third in class went to the N.81 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo (who won yesterday’s LMGTE category in the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Silverstone) and Briton Sam Bird who was making his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The second round of the 2014 championship, the WEC 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, will take place on Saturday 3^rdMay.  The classic Belgian circuit is guaranteed to provide everyone with another exciting and thrilling race.

 

 

Race result 6 hrs of Silverstone:

LMP1  

1. Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi (GB/F/CH), Toyota TS040 Hybrid, 167 laps
2. Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima (A/F/J), Toyota TS040 Hybrid, 1 lap behind
3. Bernhard/Webber/Hartley (D/AUS/NZ), Porsche 919 Hybrid, 2 laps behind
4. Heidfeld/Prost/Beche (D/F/CH), Lola B12/60-Toyota, 8 laps behind
5. Pla/Canal/Rusinov (F/F/RUS), Morgan-Nissan, 13 laps behind
6. Bradley/Howson/Matsuda (GB/GB/J), Oreca 03-Nissan, 15 laps behind

GTE-Pro class

1. Holzer/Makowiecki//Lietz (D/F/A), Porsche 911 RSR, 147 laps

2. Bergmeister/Pilet/Tandy (D/F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, 147

3. Turner/Mücke (GB/D), Aston Martin Vantage, 147

4. Bruni/Vilander (I/SF), Ferrari 458 Italia, 147

5. Rigon/Calado (I/GB), Ferrari F458 Italia, 146

6. Griffin/Parente (IRL/P), Ferrari F 458 Italia, 146

 

GTE-Am class

1. Poulsen/Hansson/Thiim (DK/DK/DK), Aston Martin Vantage, 144 laps

2. Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard (CDN/P/DK), Aston Martin Vantage, 144

3. Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird (AUS/I/GB), Ferrari F 458 Italia, 143

4. Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi (D/A/UAE), Porsche 911 RSR, 142

5. Mowlem/Patterson/Collins (GB/USA/GB), Ferrari F 458 Italia, 141

6. Perez Companc/Cioci/Venturi (ARG/I/I), Ferrari F 458 Italia, 141