FIA WEC Silverstone Toyota Rules…

Richard Crawford and Mike Widdowson travelled to Silverstone at the weekend to capture the WEC…

The #8 Toyota TS050 of Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Buemi took victory in the opening World Endurance Championship race of 2017, after a thrilling Silverstone 6 Hours.

With Toyota having a opted for a high downforce aero package for the event, and Porsche choosing the Le Mans spec low downforce package for their cars, many were expecting the Japanese marque to run away with the race. However, they had to overcome a strong challenge from Porsche, and some typically British April showers to take the flag.

The race came down to the final hour, as a safety car period caused by a huge accident for the #7 Toyota allowed the Porsche crew of Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard to stay in contention right to the end. The Porsche took fuel only at their final stop, while the Toyota squad opted for fresh rubber as well, giving the Porsche an eight second lead with half an hour of the race to run.

However, a charging final stint from Sebastian Buemi closed the gap by well over a second a lap, before barging past the #2 Porsche at The Loop with only 12 minutes remaining on the clock.

Behind the leading duo, the #1 Porsche of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Nick Tandy completed the podium, having lost time earlier in the race with an extra pitstop to change to intermediate tyres during a rain shower.

The #7 Toyota did manage to make the flag after a 100mph shunt for Jose Maria Lopez at Copse, albeit 38 laps down on the leading car.

In LMP2, victory went to the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent, taking the flag 19 seconds ahead of the #13 Rebellion car f Nico Prost, Bruno Senna and Julien Canal. TDS Racing completed the podium, with Signatech taking fourth in class after leading the opening half of the race.

GTE Pro honours went to the #67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani, with the trio having to overcome an opening door in the final half hour of the race to take the win. The Ford finished 15 seconds ahead of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Porsche took third on the GTE Pro podium with the #91 car of Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz, but only managed to get one of the new mid-engined 911 RSRs to the flag. The #92 car caused the first caution period of the race after grinding to a stop at Luffield with flames leaping from the engine bay.

Clearwater Racing took victory on their WEC debut in GTE Am, after a chaotic last lap which saw the car jump from third to first in class. Matt Griffin took advantage of a last lap clash between the Ferrari of Miguel Molina and Pedro Lamy’s Aston Martin to take a popular victory.

Gallery by Richard Crawford: