24h Le Mans
Like at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, Toyota claimed the top two steps on the overall podium at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, third round of the 2018-2019 World Endurance Championship (WEC) Super Season, as did Jackie Chan DC Racing in LMP2, while Ferrari and Porsche triumphed in LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am, respectively.
Toyota has scored back-to-back one-twos in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), first at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and now at the 6 Hours of Silverstone. Though its #7 TS050 Hybrid sister car secured the pole yesterday, the #8 Le Mans winner crossed the finish line in first place today, allowing two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima to reign undefeated since the launch of the 2018-2019 Super Season at Spa-Francorchamps in May.
In fact, today's podium was an exact duplicate of the top 3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Rebellion Racing's #3 Rebellion R13 claimed the third step, while its #1 sister car shared by previous Le Mans winners Neel Jani and André Lotterer finished fourth. Unfortunately, Jenson Button was not so successful, unable to do a lap in the race after the engine of SMP Racing's #11 BR Engineering BR1 broke down during his teammate Mikhail Aleshin's first stint. The 2009 F1 world champion was once again denied the opportunity to claim a podium finish at Silverstone just as he had been in Formula 1.
The LMP2 podium also matched the 24 Hours of Le Mans...the 2017 edition! Jackie Chan DC Racing's two ORECA 07-Gibsons, run by Jota Sport, scored the top two spots in the reverse order as qualifying: Gabriel Aubry, Stéphane Richelmi and Ho-Pin Tung driving the "Mighty38" finished ahead of the Malaysian trio sharing the "FortuneCat37." Signatech Alpine's #36 Alpine A470 held onto third place from the qualifying session.
No one-two to be had in LMGTE Pro: Ferrari and AF Corse won the class, their first victory in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) since last year's finale at Bahrain. Davide Rigon and Alessandro Pier Guidi passed under the checkered flag in first place at the wheel of the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO. Its #71 sister car caused a safety car, after scattering debris left over from a flat tire. Former Ferrari driver Gianmaria Bruni is still looking for his first win with Porsche in the FIA WEC, having to settle for second place in the class along with Richard Lietz sharing the #91 Porsche 911 RSR. The #67 Ford GT driven by Brits Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell rounded out the class podium.
As in LMGTE Pro with the #66 Ford, pole position didn't pay off for the #56 Porsche 911 RSR fielded by Team Project 1, but it did reach the third step on the LMGTE Am podium. Dempsey-Proton Racing's #77 Porsche won the class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June and repeated the feat in the heart of British motorsport today thanks to Christian Ried (the only driver to participate in every round of the FIA WEC since its inception in 2012), Matt Campbell and Julien Andlauer. Second place went to TF Sport's #90 Aston Martin Vantage between the two Porsches.
Now all eyes are on Asia where the fourth round of the 2018-2019 World Endurance Championship (WEC) will be held on 14 October at the Fuji circuit in Japan, on Toyota's home playing field.
PHOTO (Copyright - João Filipe, AdrenalMedia.com/FIA WEC): The #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid followed its win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the top two steps on the overall podium at this weekend's 6 Hours of Silverstone.
