Sebring WEC: #8 Toyota crew takes first win since Le Mans

The #8 Toyota crew was handed a clear path to victory when Jose Maria Lopez made a crucial slip-up in the sister #7 TS050 Hybrid in the fifth hour of the race.

Lopez made contact with the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin of Jonathan Adam at Turn 15, picking up floor damage that necessitated a trip to the pits that cost the #7 almost two laps.

The car shared by Lopez, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi had been right in the hunt at half-distance, with Lopez trailing Buemi by just a few seconds at the time of his incident.

Heavy rain in the final 30 minutes prompted both Toyotas to change to wet tyres, and then again to extreme wets, as a crash for Loic Duval in the #28 TDS Racing Oreca with only 12 minutes left on the clock brought out the safety car that remained out until the finish.

Despite a late spin for Nakajima, the #8 crew hung on in the treacherous conditions to score their third win of the 2018/19 superseason by a lap over the #7.

With the Sebring race offering 32 points for a win instead of the usual 25, it means Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi lead by 15 points heading into the last two rounds of the campaign.

Completing the podium was the #11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1, which recovered from an early puncture to finish best of the rest, 11 laps down on the winning Toyota.

The #3 Rebellion R-13 Gibson looked well set for the final podium place after both SMP cars hit trouble, the #17 BR1 dropping out when Egor Orudzhev crashed in the second hour.

But late gear selection issues for the #3 dropped it behind the leading LMP2 cars, giving the #11 car shared by ex-IndyCar driver Mikhail Aleshin and ex-Formula 1 drivers Brendon Hartley and Vitaly Petrov a spot on the podium.

The #1 Rebellion dropped out when Mathias Beche crashed while trying to lap a backmarker in hour five, while the #10 DragonSpeed BR1 was ruled out with gearbox problems.

LMP2: DC Racing newcomers victorious

Jackie Chan DC Racing trio David Heinemeier Hansson, Jordan King and Will Stevens took a dominant victory in LMP2, finishing fourth overall.

The new drivers of the #37 Oreca took control of the secondary class early on and established a big lead over their only real rival, the #36 Signatech Alpine Oreca, ultimately beating Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao by 27 seconds.

DragonSpeed drivers Anthony Davidson, Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez recovered from an early brush with the barrier to take third in class, a lap down.

Points leaders Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry ended up bottom of the order, 30 laps down on the class-winning sister car, after suffering early electrical issues.

GTE: Rain shower hands Porsche win

Porsche took an unlikely victory in the GTE Pro class as Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took full advantage of the late rain.

BMW had looked on course for its first WEC race victory after Martin Tomczyk passed the Ford of Jonathan Bomarito to snatch the advantage in hour six, with Tomczyk's teammate Alexander Sims at one point leading by more than 10 seconds.

But that advantage was lost in the pits when the rain arrived as Porsche turned around the #91 car 10 seconds faster than BMW to change to wet tyres.

Tomczyk, Sims and Nicky Catsburg had to be content with second place, ahead of the #67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Bomarito, which had commanded much of the race.

Priaulx had led by more than 20 seconds before the first safety car period, and once the pack had been bunched up the Ford appeared to struggle for pace after the sun set.

The two AF Corse-run Ferraris sandwiched the #92 Porsche of championship leaders Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, which had to serve a stop-and-go penalty when Estre made contact with the Aston Martin of Darren Turner.

Corvette Racing's sole C7.R finished eighth ahead of the two Aston Martins, while the #66 Ford GT was 11th and last in class after an early alternator problem.

GTE Am victory went to the Dempsey-Proton Porsche trio Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer and Christian Ried, which bested the Spirit of Race Ferrari by 12 seconds.

Project 1 Racing, racing with a spare Porsche that was hastily shipped over to Sebring following the squad's dramatic testing fire, completed the class podium in third place.

A puncture for the #98 Aston Martin that led at half-distance consigned the car to eighth.

Race results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time
1	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	253	-
2	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	252	1 lap
3	11	Vitaly Petrov   Brendon Hartley   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	242	11 laps
4	37	Will Stevens   David Heinemeier Hansson   Jordan King	Oreca 07	LMP2	239	14 laps
5	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	239	14 laps
6	31	Anthony Davidson   Pastor Maldonado   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	237	16 laps
7	3	Nathanael Berthon   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	237	16 laps
8	50	Gunnar Jeannette   Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	234	19 laps
9	29	Giedo van der Garde   Nyck de Vries   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	230	23 laps
10	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	226	27 laps
11	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk   Alexander Sims	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	226	27 laps
12	67	Harry Tincknell   Jonathan Bomarito   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
13	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi   Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
14	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
15	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon   Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
16	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Bruno Spengler   Augusto Farfus	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
17	63	Jan Magnussen   Antonio Garcia   Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	225	28 laps
18	97	Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	224	29 laps
19	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim   Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	224	29 laps
20	77	Christian Ried  Matthew Campbell  Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	221	32 laps
21	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	221	32 laps
22	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	221	32 laps
23	86	Michael Wainwright   Benjamin Barker   Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	221	32 laps
24	70	Olivier Beretta   Eddie Cheever III   Motoaki Ishikawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	220	33 laps
25	90	Jonathan Adam   Salih Yoluc   Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	220	33 laps
26	88	Gianluca Roda   Matteo Cairoli   Giorgio Roda	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	219	34 laps
27	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	219	34 laps
28	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla   Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	216	37 laps
29	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	209	44 laps
30	28	Loic Duval   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	232	21 laps
31	17	Sergey Sirotkin   Stéphane Sarrazin   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	62	191 laps
32	10	Henrik Hedman   Renger van der Zande   Ben Hanley	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	143	110 laps
33	1	Bruno Senna   Neel Jani   Mathias Beche	Rebellion R13	LMP1	138	115 laps