A full-course yellow gave the team an extra stop for free and went on to ease to victory ahead of the #15 AF Corse of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi with the #91 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz in third.In GTE Am, Matt Griffin, Keita Sawa and Mok Weng Sun secured victory for the #61 Clearwater Racing squad after a frantic last-lap battle between Pedro Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin and Miguel Molina in the #54 Spirit of Ferrari saw the pair collide at Stowe to hand Griffin victory ahead of Lamy with the #77 Proton Competition Porsche taking an unlikely third. Sebastien Buemi claimed the lead from Brendon Hartley with 12 minutes remaining to secure victory for Toyota Gazoo Racing at the 2017 season opener of the FIA World Endurance Championship the Silverstone 6 Hours.The #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson rode out the Porsche attacks at Silverstone to grab a late-race victory having seen the German manufacturer be able to close the performance deficit in wet conditions.For Silverstone Toyota ran its high downforce trim while Porsche opted for the Le Mans downforce specification which immediately gave the Japanese squad the upper hand.But a timely safety car period after a high-speed crash by Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota LMP1 challenger allowed the Porsche pair to close the gap along with the wet weather levelling the playing field.Porsche gambled as the #2 919 Hybrid of Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard pitted for fuel only to take an eight-second advantage into the final 30 minutes but the fresh rubbered Toyota of Buemi reeled in the leader to claim victory for the #8 car's first win in WEC since Shanghai 2014 and its infamous failure at last year's Le Mans 24 Hours having led with 10 minutes to go.Behind the top two the #1 Porsche of Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Nick Tandy completed the rostrum trio.In LMP2, Jota-run #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA-Gibson of Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung claimed an easy win, which saw the British driver victorious on LMP2 debut having seen Audi exit the series last year.Defending champion Signatech Alpine looked comfortable by the end of the fourth hour but a two full-course yellows mixed up the running order which saw TDS Racing grab the lead before being passed by Jarvis in the DC Racing ORECA-Gibson.With the #13 ORECA of Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna and Julien Canal in second place TDS narrowly missed out as the Signatech car of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Matt Rao finished a lap down in fourth place.In GTE Pro, Ford's #67 Ganassi-run GT car of Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani claimed victory despite a faulty door in the early running at Silverstone.
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Toyota takes hard-fought win at Six Hours of Silverstone
Molina's Spirit of Race car didn't make it to the checkered flag and so wasn't classified. Toyota Gazoo Racing has taken a hard-fought victory in Sunday's rain-affected Six Hours of Silverstone, following an unexpected late-race strategic duel with Porsche in a dramatic FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener. The Aston Martin finished ahead of Matteo Cairoli's Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche. The Chinese-backed team held control of the race in the closing hour, retaining the lead following its final stop with 22 minutes to go. 28 TDS Racing Oreca on its final stop with 22 minutes to go, nearly saw the Frenchman get by Prost for second in class.
It was the second Toyota which provided the biggest drama in the class. 8 Toyota TS050 of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima snatched the lead from the No. "It's my first win in LMP2, Ho-Pin's first WEC win and Thomas's too; let's not forget he is the youngest driver in the race and this is his WEC debut. 8's comfortable lead of over 20 seconds, allowing both Porsches to race for the win in the second half. "At the end, I knew I had the advantage of fresher tires, but I wasn't expecting to come out eight seconds behind!
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Toyota collected by :
John Max