6 Hours of Silverstone – Toyota wins by a landslide

This season, it’s a duel that will stir up the WEC between Toyota and Porsche since Audi has decided to abandon its endurance racing program to contribute to the necessary savings following the Volkswagen scandal.

For this first race of the season, the two teams were tied, with two cars each. Indeed, for the Spa-Francorchamps races and especially the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota decided to field three cars to maximize the chances of success in the 24-hour marathon in Sarthe.

But Porsche and Toyota have made radically different configuration choices since Porsche adopted a light aerodynamic package to best prepare for Le Mans, whereas Toyota decided to use the package best suited for the British track, which means much more loaded in aerodynamics.

This resulted in an undisputed dominance during the qualifications as the two Toyotas led the session head and shoulders above, with more than a second’s advantage over the two Porsches.

At the start, the two Toyotas began to widen the gap with their direct competitors, while trying to get through the always problematic traffic. This is how the two cars swapped the lead several times, which only increased the heart rate of the team’s decision-makers.

But the forward march of the Japanese team was disrupted by the infamous British weather, which played its role. Thus, brief showers made their appearance, which had the benefit of reshuffling the deck as drivers then had to contend with precarious and variable grip along the track.

These changing conditions caught Jose-Maria Lopez by surprise, as he was making his debut in the category. The driver of the No. 7 Toyota, who had earlier suffered a broken anti-roll bar during the race, spun at the high-speed Copse corner. He then crashed into the barriers. However, the Argentine was able to bring his damaged car back to the pits so the team could still finish the race. This was indeed the case since the team’s mechanics managed to send the car back on track, even setting the fastest lap in the race thanks to Mike Conway. The team finished 4th in LMP1 but 23rd overall.

But this off-track excursion triggered the entry of the safety car, which managed to completely revive the race by eliminating the gaps at the front of the pack. The battle did not cease between the Toyota No. 8 and the Porsche No. 2. So as the final hour of the race began, Porsche had managed to take the lead. Thus, when Sébastien Buemi came out for his final stint, he was eight seconds behind Brendon Hartley’s Porsche.

Finally, the Swiss driver managed to catch up to his rival thanks to an impressive series of laps. After a long battle, he found an opening less than 15 minutes before the end to take victory.

This battle is just fierce!@Toyota_Hybrid #8 @Sebastien_buemi Vs @Porsche_Team #2 @BrendonHartley 😮😲👏#6hSilverstone pic.twitter.com/pk7pk53hNu

— FIA WEC (@FIAWEC) April 16, 2017

This allowed him to also take the lead in the Drivers’ Championship, while the double podium for Porsche enables the German team to lead the Constructors’ Championship.

In the evening, Toyota also announced that Jose-Maria Lopez had been released from the hospital and that he was suffering no consequences from his impressive off-track incident.