Both Toyotas excluded at Silverstone, Rebellion wins
Both Toyotas have been excluded from the WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone, handing outright victory to privateer LMP1 squad Rebellion Racing.
Photo by: Toyota Racing
The #8 and #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrids dominated the event, finishing four laps clear of the third-placed #3 Rebellion R-13 Gibson as Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima scored their third straight WEC victory.
But in post-race scrutineering, the two Japanese cars failed their skid block deflection tests.
The front part of the winning #8 car's skid block was reported to have "deflected 6mm on the right-hand side and 8mm on the left-hand side under the specified 2500 N load at the front of the skid block".
The second-placed #7 Toyota's infraction was slightly different, as “the front part of the skid block deflected 9mm under the specified 2500 N load on both sides of the skid block".
It means Rebellion drivers Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche inherit victory, ahead of the sister #1 car of Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer.
SMP Racing pair Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev move up to the final place on the podium.
Stewards' bulletins relating to the exclusion of both Toyotas said the team had explained that both its cars sustained damage to their skid blocks in-race but that this was not deemed a valid excuse.
They read: "Although there are no reports of the car being involved in any specific incident, the competitor stated that his only explanation for the non-conformity must have been as a result of the car running off-track and sustaining some sort of damage to the internal stays that fix that portion of the car.
"The stewards considered this possibility but determined that the design of the car must be able to withstand the normal rigors of a 6 hours endurance race.”
The #3 Rebellion inherited what became victory as a result of the #1 car requiring a change of rear bodywork in the final hour in order to fix a faulty tail-light.
UPDATE: Toyota's response...
Following the news of the exclusion of both of its cars, a statement from Toyota read: "Both cars suffered damage to their respective front floor areas during the race due to impacts against the new kerbs at Silverstone. Regrettably, this also caused both cars to fail deflection tests in post-race scrutineering. As a result, race stewards disqualified both cars.
"The design and construction of the part concerned has not changed since its introduction at the beginning of the 2017 season. Since then it has successfully passed similar tests, most recently at Spa this season.
"The team is now evaluating its next course of action."
Revised race results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | Mathias Beche Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 193 | 6:02'10.579 |
2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 192 | 1 Lap |
3 | 17 | Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 192 | 1 Lap |
4 | 38 | Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 185 | 8 Laps |
5 | 37 | Nabil Jeffri Weiron Tan Jazeman Jaafar |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 185 | 8 Laps |
6 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Pierre Thiriet Andre Negrao |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 183 | 10 Laps |
7 | 31 | Anthony Davidson Pastor Maldonado Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 181 | 12 Laps |
8 | 29 | Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries Frits van Eerd |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 181 | 12 Laps |
9 | 50 | Romano Ricci Erwin Creed Yoshiharu Mori |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 176 | 17 Laps |
10 | 28 | Loic Duval François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 173 | 20 Laps |
11 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 172 | 21 Laps |
12 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 172 | 21 Laps |
13 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 172 | 21 Laps |
14 | 97 | Maxime Martin Alex Lynn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 171 | 22 Laps |
15 | 81 | Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 171 | 22 Laps |
16 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 170 | 23 Laps |
17 | 77 | Christian Ried Matt Campbell Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 168 | 25 Laps |
18 | 90 | Jonathan Adam Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 168 | 25 Laps |
19 | 56 | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 168 | 25 Laps |
20 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 168 | 25 Laps |
21 | 61 | Matthew Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 167 | 26 Laps |
22 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Alex Davison |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 167 | 26 Laps |
23 | 70 | Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III Motoaki Ishikawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 167 | 26 Laps |
24 | 88 | Gianluca Roda Matteo Cairoli Giorgio Roda |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 167 | 26 Laps |
25 | 10 | Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande Ben Hanley |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 165 | 28 Laps |
26 | 54 | Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 158 | 35 Laps |
27 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 157 | 36 Laps |
28 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 155 | 38 Laps |
29 | 82 | Antonio Felix da Costa Augusto Farfus |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 116 | 77 Laps |
30 | 4 | Oliver Webb Rene Binder |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 59 | 134 Laps |
31 | 11 | Jenson Button Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 23 | 170 Laps |
DQ | 8 | Fernando Alonso Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 197 | - |
DQ | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 197 | - |
DQ | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 172 | - |
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