» Webber third in sports car comeback

Toyota has claimed its first 1-2 finish as this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship season got underway, although most eyes were focused on the sports car comeback of former F1 driver Mark Webber and the iconic Porsche brand.

The Australian and his co-drivers, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, guided the #20 919 Hybrid LMP1 racer to a third-placed finish at yesterday’s rain-shortened 6 Hours of Silverstone.

Victory was claimed by the #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Nicholas Lapierre, who had a one-lap margin over the sister #7 TS040 of polesitters Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Stéphane Sarrazin when the red flags were brought out with a little over 30 minutes to go after a sudden downpour.

A well-timed switch to intermediate tyres gave the #7 Toyota victory over its sister car

Webber and his teammates’ Porsche took a fine third from sixth on the grid, two laps behind the winning Toyota. The sister #19 Porsche piloted by Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas, failed to finish. The car suffered an hydraulics problem shortly after a lengthy pit stop to repair damaged suspension.

By far the biggest surprise came from reigning champions Audi, whose pair of R18 racers were in the wars. The team’s new boy, Lucas di Grassi, crashed the #1 car at Woodcote less than 25 laps into the race. André Lotterer spun the #2 Audi at Stowe, handing it over to co-driver Benoît Tréluyer, who finished off the job when he lost it at Copse and slapped the barrier.

The OAK G-Drive Racing Morgan Nissan of Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal came out on top in the LMP2 class, thirteen laps down on the winning Toyota.

Seven laps further adrift was the winning GTE-Pro class winners, the Manthey Porsche 911 RSR driven by Marco Holzer, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki, which narrowly beat its sister car of Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy.

The GTE-Am class victory went to the all-Danish line-up of Kristian Poulsen, Nicki Thiim and David Heinemeier Hansson, who piloted the #95 works Aston Martin Vantage. They led home the sister Vantage driven by Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Christoffer Nygaard.

The series’ next round is the 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, which takes place in two weeks’ time.

2014 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone – Race Classification (167 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	Class
1.	Davidson / Lapierre / Buemi	Toyota Racing TS040 Hybrid	5:22:42.296	LMP1-H
2.	Wurz / Sarrazin / Nakajima	Toyota Racing TS040 Hybrid	+ 1 lap	LMP1-H
3.	Bernhard / Webber / Hartley	Porsche Team 919 Hybrid	+ 2 laps	LMP1-H
4.	Prost / Heidfeld / Beche	Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota	+ 8 laps	LMP1-L
5.	Rusinov / Pla / Canal	G-Drive Racing Morgan Nissan	+ 13 laps	LMP2
6.	Howson / Bradley / Matsuda	KCMG ORECA Nissan	+ 15 laps	LMP2
7.	Holzer / Makowiecki / Lietz	Manthey Porsche 911 RSR	+ 20 laps	GTE P
8.	Pilet / Bergmeister / Tandy	Manthey Porsche 911 RSR	+ 20 laps	GTE P
9.	Turner / Mücke	Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE	+ 20 laps	GTE P
10.	Bruni / Vilander	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 20 laps	GTE P
11.	Rigon / Calado	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 21 laps	GTE P
12.	Griffin / Parente	Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 21 laps	GTE P
13.	Zlobin / Minassian / Mediani	SMP Racing ORECA Nissan	+ 22 laps	LMP2
14.	MacDowall / O’Young / Rees	Bamboo Aston Martin Vantage GTE	+ 23 laps	GTE P
15.	Poulsen / Hansson / Thiim	Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE	+ 23 laps	GTE A
16.	Dalla Lana / Lamy / Nygaard	Aston Martin Racing vantage GTE	+ 23 laps	GTE A
17.	Wyatt / Rugolo / Bird	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 24 laps	GTE A
18.	Ried / Bachler / Al Qubaisi	Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR	+ 25 laps	GTE A
19.	Mowlem / Patterson / Collins	Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 26 laps	GTE A
20.	Companc / Cioci / Venturi	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	+ 26 laps	GTE A
	Not Classified
DNF.	Potolicchio / Roda / Ruberti	8Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	118 laps	GTE A
DNF.	Fässler / Lotterer / Tréluyer	Audi Sport R18 e-tron Quattro	94 laps	LMP1-H
DNF.	Perrodo / Collard / Vaxivière	Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 RSR	83 laps	GTE A
DNF.	Ladygin / Shaitar / Ladygin	SMP Racing ORECA Nissan	65 laps	LMP2
DNF.	Dumas / Jani / Lieb	Porsche Team 919 Hybrid	30 laps	LMP1-H
DNF.	Kraihamer / Belicchi / Leimer	Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota	24 laps	LMP1-L
DNF.	Di Grassi / Duval / Kristensen	Audi Sport R18 e-tron Quattro	24 laps	LMP1-H