No. 8 Toyota dominates 6 Hours of Silverstone

For the third time in the as many races in the 2018/19 WEC season, it was Toyota’s day. The Japanese team earned its third consecutive 1-2 WEC finish today with a comfortable, dominant win, its pair of TS050 HYBRIDs again untouchable, crossing the line four laps ahead of the nearest privateer runner.

When all was said and done, the No. 8 of Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi earned its third win in a row. Heading into the final hour it looked like the sister No. 7 car of Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi would take its first victory of the season and lead home the formation finish, but an issue with the car's floor left Kobayashi with no option but to relinquish the position to Buemi, who took the checkered flag in the winning car.

Despite Toyota having no real competition, there was still plenty of scrapping between the two TS050s during the six hours, with both cars running together on track for most of the race, jostling for the lead. It was no grandstand finish though, and at the end, the No. 8 finished 19 seconds ahead of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez's challenger.

Results

“It was a nice battle with the sister car, we had to push all the way through. I think it’s been a fun day for us. It’s been amazing to work with this team. It was perfect execution again.

"It was a close race, it seems that we were struggling at the beginning or the stints, the No. 7 was killing us, but in the end it was close racing. Three for three!" Alonso said .

“Next is our home race, we need to keep it up when we race there,” added Nakajima.

EoT is the story du jour once again in LMP1. Despite a change heading into the weekend to speed up the privateers -- and the organizers quietly removing the lap limit for each stint -- it was no contest. If the aim is to ensure that privateer teams have a real chance of taking the fight to the Toyotas, then another re-think is required.

In fairness, the new non-hybrid cars need to find true reliability as well as pace, because behind there was plenty of intrigue in the privateer ranks. But it was ultimately a race of attrition, and Rebellion Racing emerged victorious on this occasion.

The No. 1 R-13 looked certain to lead the No. 3 home for the first time this year, but the team was forced to change the No. 1's rear clip at its final stop, dropping it off the podium, allowing Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche to finish best of the rest again.

This was a comfortable 'Privateer' win for Rebellion, the late swap aside, as both cars ran a steady race after they were involved in chaos at Turn 1 at the start – where the No. 3 and the No. 17 SMP BR1 came together.

Both SMP Racing BR1s provided the Anglo-Swiss outfit's biggest threat, but the No. 11 retired in the opening hour with an engine failure (before hometown hero Jenson Button was able to drive in front of his home fans) and the No. 17 faded away late in the race and finished fifth.

Elsewhere in the class, ByKolles' CLM failed to finish after an accident at the start of a full-course yellow period, and the DragonSpeed BR1 finished 32 laps down after a multitude of issues throughout the race.

LMP2

LMP2 was rather uneventful in racing terms, but it was nevertheless a very impressive performance from Jackie Chan DC Racing, which scored a dominant 1-2 finish, the No. 38 of Stephane Richelmi, Gabriel Aubry and Ho Pin Tung taking its second win of 2018 after an inter-team fight for much of the final three hours that left the all-Malaysian sister crew forced to settle for second.

It was notable in this instance, that JCDC scored such a comfortable formation finish, as neither car had a clean run. The No. 37 suffered a puncture, and the No. 38 had to serve a drive-through for a jump start, and lost further time due to an ill-timed safety car period late in the race.

Behind, the championship-leading, Le Mans-winning Signatech Alpine finished third, the team struggling for pace for almost the entire six hours, Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao slowly falling back and finishing a lap down. Completing the top five in the class was the No. 31 DragonSpeed ORECA which endured a real slog of a race, with contact, penalties and mechanical issues leaving the team three laps down in the end. Racing Team Nederland finished fifth, after Giedo Van Der Garde showed the car’s potential – as he did at Spa – running second in the opening stint of the race.

Image by WEC

GTE Pro

The hardest fought category in the race, as it was at Le Mans, was GTE Pro. And after multiple twists and turns, it was the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi that took the win, the first of the year for the team, beating the Porsches and the No. 67 Ford to the flag.

"We saved fuel to the max in the first few stints, benefitted from full-course yellows, some would call us lucky but we did a good job," the Briton said. "I had a really good stint, a great battle with the Porsche, we aren't there on pace, but we've done it on strategy.

"It's unbelievable to win at my home race, it's great to see the British crowd. The car was amazing, it's so good for Ferrari to get the win. I'm looking forward to celebrating."

Eventually, the No. 91 Porsche snuck up on the sister car to take second, despite the No. 92 at times looking poised to win the class. And in the final minutes, the 92 fell to fourth and off the podium.

In what turned into a ferocious battle to end the race, the No. 67 Ford took the final trophy-paying position. Harry Tincknell had to give his all to take the place, making it stick round the outside of Michael Christensen at Stowe, the two cars banging doors in the process. A podium finish will come as somewhat of a relief for Ford, after what was a strange, underwhelming race for the Multimatic-run team.

Both GTs looked capable of winning the race, and early on ran 1-2 after dropping down the order in the melee at the start. But the No. 66 lost two minutes with a door issue at a pit stop, and the No. 67 lost out through the full-course yellows and Safety Cars, only catching the No. 92 at the very end -- both Andy Priaulx, and teammate Harry Tincknell were among the very best on track when attacking opportunities were presented.

Behind the No. 92, was the first of the Aston Martins, in what was the best showing to this point for the new Vantage AMRs. The No. 95 had recurring gearbox issues and was unable to feature, but the No. 97 did find itself jostling for top five positions for much of the encounter. A solid but unspectacular fifth place finish on the brand's home race for Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin is a display of progress on both the car and BoP front. It’s still not where it needs to be though, as Aston Martin and particularly BMW were still off the pace as the race ran its course.

Image by LAT

GTE Am

Like GTE Pro, GT Am also wasn't decided until the final hour, and provided much of the race’s entertainment. Two contenders came forward after the opening hours, the Team Project 1 Porsche and TF Sport Aston Martin, but neither would win despite holding a healthy advantage of over a minute over the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche after five hours.

The two cars jostled for the lead, Jonny Adam thrusting the Aston past Patrick Lindsay at Brooklands in Hour 5 to make what looked like the winning move. But both cars were handed 75-second stop-go penalties in the final hour for their stops under Safety Car, dropping them to second and third behind the No. 77.

In what was a surprise win for the No. 77, Julien Andlauer, Christian Ried and Matt Campbell had a strong six hours, didn't quite have the pace, but managed to extend their title lead with a second victory.

“We were very lucky but happy to get the win,” Campbell admitted after the race. “The track was very difficult at the last stint, but we got there in the end and that’s what matters.”

Further back, the TF Sport Aston finished a fighting second, with the Project 1 Porsche having to fight hard for the final podium spot with No. 98 Aston Martin, Jorg Bergmiester passing Pedro Lamy on the very last lap to seal it.

Despite leaving with no silverware, it was still a strong run from the No. 98 Aston crew, recovering to fourth after contact at the start cost the team a lot of time, the mechanics forced to change the rear defuser in a frantic unscheduled stop.

The next round of the championship is the 6 Hours of Fuji on October 12th.