Toyota was disqualified from first and second positions in Sunday’s Silverstone round of the World Endurance Championship.The two Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs were excluded from the results of Sunday’s Silverstone 6 Hours after the front section of the underfloor skid-block on each car failed the deflection test in post-race technical checks.
The disqualification promotes the first of the non-hybrid privateer LMP1 contenders, the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13 shared by Gustavo Menezez, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche to the victory. The second Rebellion entry moves up to second and the best of the SMP Racing team’s AER-powered BR Engineering BR1 chassis takes the final spot on the podium.
Toyota has already confirmed it intention to appeal the decision.
The maximum deflection allowed is 5mm when the skid-block or plank undergoes a 2500 Newton meter load. The plank on the winning Toyota shared by Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima deflected by 9mm. while that of the second-placed sister car driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez deflected by 6mm on one side and 8mm on the other.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s representative in scrutineering, LMP1 project leader John Litjens, argued that the irregularity must have been caused by the cars running off track and damaging the plank mountings. The stewards ruled that the design of the car must be able to withstand the rigors of a six-hour race.
Ferrari prevailed in a thrilling battle in GTE Pro with the factory AF Corse entry shared by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi
Calado and Pier Guidi ended up prevailing by 14 seconds over the factory Porsche 911 RSR driven by Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, which came through from 10th position in class after qualifying. The Ganassi Ford GT shared by Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell passed the second Porsche, shared by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre in the closing stages to take third position.
That became second when the Bruni/Lietz Porsche was thrown out in postrace tech for a ride height infringement.
The Ford had the edge on pace on its rivals around Silverstone, but ultimately lost the victory when it pitted both its cars when the only safety car period came to an end on half distance. The other class frontrunners then gained when another safety car of the virtual kind followed shortly afterward, and they were able to make their stops under yellow-flag conditions.
The Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing squad finished one-two in LMP2 with its pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s. Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry triumphed by just under two seconds. The TDS Racing ORECA of Loic Duval, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo had the pace to win but sustained a front left upright failure.
The GTE Am division was won by the Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR shared by Christian Reid, Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell.
