No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID takes hat-trick Super Season win
The No.8 Toyota TS 050 HYBRID of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima took their third consecutive FIA WEC victory at Silverstone today.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing team enjoyed another 1-2 finish after a close battle throughout the 6 Hours of Silverstone. 60,240 enthusiastic fans saw the action over the weekend at Silverstone as the world’s most spectacular sportscars put on another thrilling show.
After swapping the lead on multiple occasions the two Toyotas were finally separated only in the final hour when Buemi made a move on Kamui Kobayashi after the Japanese driver saw a slight drop off in pace. Suspected damage to the floor of the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID gave Buemi the opportunity which he grasped with both hands.
The win ensured that Buemi and Nakajima enjoyed their second consecutive win at Silverstone and Alonso continued his 100%-win rate in the FIA WEC.
Rebellion Racing placed third and fourth with the No.3 Rebellion R13-Gibson of Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche taking the final podium place, but it was only sealed in the final hour when the sister No.1 Rebellion LMP1 car was forced to pit for repairs to the rear of the car. Neel Jani and André Lotterer ran for the majority of the race in third position and looked to be on course for the podium and eventually came in fourth.
SMP Racing took fifth place with the No.17 BR Engineering BR1-AER entry of Stéphane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev. The sister Russian-entered car of home hero Jenson Button, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov retired in the first hour with a technical problem.
Jackie Chan DC Racing claims famous 1-2 in LMP2 thriller
The Jackie Chan DC Racing squad took a dominant 1-2 victory in LMP2 as the No.38 car of Ho-Pin Tung, Stéphane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry beat the No.37 ORECA Gibson - crewed Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri - by just 1.9 seconds in a sensational encounter.
The No.38 car from the Anglo-Chinese stable fought back from a drive-through penalty for jumping the start and then an unscheduled stop when they ran short of fuel.
It was the second consecutive Silverstone win for the Jackie Chan DC Racing squad. Earlier the No.37 had lead impressively but their progress was halted by a puncture midway through the race.
Despite the best efforts of Jazeman Jaafer the No.37 car just fell short of challenging for the win in the final laps.
The LMP2 title leading Signatech Alpine trio of André Negrão, Pierre Thiriet and Nicolas Lapierre took third place despite receiving a lengthy timed penalty for a Safety Car infraction at the half-distance mark.
The next round will be the 6 Hours of Fuji at Fuji Speedway in Japan on Sunday 14th October.
Click HERE for the provisional race results
