Campbell wins as Toyota disqualified at Silverstone
By
Slade Perrins
Monday 20th August, 2018 - 10:22am
After claiming a dominant one-two finish, both of the Toyotas have been excluded from the 6H Silverstone pic: PSP Images
UPDATE: Toyota has decided to not appeal either exclusion.
Both Toyotas TS050 Hybrids have been disqualified from the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Silverstone in a race that saw Australian Matt Campbell claim GTE-Am honours.
Toyota dominated proceedings at the head of the field, four laps clear of the non-hybrids as Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima chalked up their third straight WEC race win in the #8 followed home by the sister car.
During post-race scrutineering, however, both were found to have failed skid block deflection tests, leading to their disqualification.
Toyota claimed the failure was a result of running over newly installed kerbs at Silverstone.
“The design and construction of the part concerned has not changed since its introduction at the beginning of the 2017 season,” said the team in a statement.
“Since then it has successfully passed similar tests, most recently at Spa this season.
“The team is now evaluating its next course of action.”
In a separate statement, the stewards refuted the suggestion, stating the car must be up to the challenge of an endurance race.
“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 stated.
“The stewards considered this possibility but determined that the design of the car must be able to withstand the normal rigors of a six hours endurance race.”
The ruling means privateer squad Rebellion Racing provisionally inherit a one-two finish, with the #3 of Mathias Beche, Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes landing the victory ahead of the #1 Rebellion.
It marks the first outright victory for a non-hybrid prototype in WEC competition since Spa 2012 and the first-ever for a privateer team.
Australian Matt Campbell claimed victory alongside co-drivers Christian Ried, Julian Andlauer in the GTE-Am class for Dempsey-Proton Racing.
Australian Matt Campbell won the GTE-Am class pic: Matt Campbell Twitter
The Porsche trio finished 46 seconds ahead of the TF Sport Aston Martin and Team Project 1 Porsche, who both picked up pit lane penalties, but still managed to finish on the class podium.
Alex Davison claimed fifth in GTE-Am aboard the Gulf Racing Porsche he shares with Ben Barker and Michael Wainwright.
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi picked up the GTE-Pro class win in their #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488, the team’s first since Fuji 2017.
Meanwhile, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR lost its second place finish for a ride height infraction, promoting the #67 Ford GT to the runner up position and the #92 Porsche to third.
LMP2 spoils went the way of Jackie Chan DC Racing, as its #38 Oreca of Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi led home a one-two result for the Jota Sport run outfit.
Jazeman Jaafar in the #37 car chased down the identical entry driven by Tung in the closing stages, but fell 1.9s short of his team-mate at the flag.
Signatech Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao rounded out the podium in their Alpine A470 Gibson.
The only safety of the six-hour encounter came at the halfway mark when Davide Rigon’s #71 AF Corse Ferrari left bodywork strewn across the track from a puncture caused by contact with the #17 SMP Racing car.
Earlier in the race, a brief Full Course Yellow was needed for debris as well after Rene Binder spun and crashed the ByKolles Racing LMP1 privateer entry.
The FIA World Endurance Championship continues with the 6 Hours of Fuji and Round 4 of the 2018/19 Super Season from October 12-14.
FIA WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone race highlights:
Race results: 6 Hours of Silverstone
Pos
Num
Car
Team
Drivers
Split to lead
Class
1
3
Rebellion R13 – Gibson
Rebellion Racing
M.Beche/T.Laurent/G.Menezes
193 laps
LMP1
2
1
Rebellion R13 – Gibson
Rebellion Racing
N.Jani/A.Lotterer
+1 Lap
LMP1
3
17
BR Engineering BR1 – AER
SMP Racing
S.Sarrazin/E.Orudzhev
+1 Lap
LMP1
4
38
Oreca 07 – Gibson
Jackie Chan DC Racing
H.Tung/G.Aubry/S.Richelmi
+8 Laps
LMP2
5
37
Oreca 07 – Gibson
Jackie Chan DC Racing
J.Jaafar/W.Tan/N.Jeffri
+8 Laps
LMP2
6
36
Alpine A470 – Gibson
Signatech Alpine Matmut
N.Lapierre/A.Negrão/P.Thiriet
+10 Laps
LMP2
7
31
Oreca 07 – Gibson
DragonSpeed
R.Gonzalez/P.Maldonado/A.Davidson
+12 Laps
LMP2
8
29
Dallara P217 – Gibson
Racing Team Nederland
F.Van Eerd/G.van der Garde/N.de Vries
+12 Laps
LMP2
9
50
Ligier JSP217 – Gibson
Larbre Competition
E.Creed/R.Ricci/Y.Mori
+17 Laps
LMP2
10
28
Oreca 07 – Gibson
TDS Racing
F.Perrodo/M.Vaxiviere/L.Duval
+20 Laps
LMP2
11
51
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO
AF Corse
A.Pier Guidi/J.Calado
+21 Laps
LMGTE Pro
12
67
Ford GT
Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK
A.Priaulx/H.Tincknell
+21 Laps
LMGTE Pro
13
92
Porsche 911 RSR
Porsche GT Team
M.Christensen/K.Estre
+21 Laps
LMGTE Pro
14
97
Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin Racing
A.Lynn/M.Martin
+22 Laps
LMGTE Pro
15
81
BMW M8 GTE
BMW Team MTEK
M.Tomczyk/N.Catsburg
+22 Laps
LMGTE Pro
16
66
Ford GT
Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK
S.Mücke/O.Pla
+23 Laps
LMGTE Pro
17
77
Porsche 911 RSR
Dempsey – Proton Racing
C.Ried/J.Andlauer/M.Campbell
+25 Laps
LMGTE Am
18
90
Aston Martin Vantage
TF Sport
S.Yoluc/J.Adam/C.Eastwood
+25 Laps
LMGTE Am
19
56
Porsche 911 RSR
Team Project 1
J.Bergmeister/P.Lindsey/E.Perfetti
+25 Laps
LMGTE Am
20
98
Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin Racing
P.Dalla Lana/P.Lamy/M.Lauda
+25 Laps
LMGTE Am
21
61
Ferrari F488 GTE
Clearwater Racing
W.Mok/K.Sawa/M.Griffin
+26 Laps
LMGTE Am
22
86
Porsche 911 RSR
Gulf Racing
M.Wainwright/B.Barker/A.Davison
+26 Laps
LMGTE Am
23
70
Ferrari F488 GTE
MR Racing
M.Ishikawa/O.Beretta/E.Cheever
+26 Laps
LMGTE Am
24
88
Porsche 911 RSR
Dempsey – Proton Racing
G.Roda/G.Roda Jr/M.Cairoli
+26 Laps
LMGTE Am
25
10
BR Engineering BR1 – Gibson
DragonSpeed
H.Hedman/B.Hanley/R.van der Zande
+28 Laps
LMP1
26
54
Ferrari F488 GTE
Spirit of Race
T.Flohr/F.Castellacci/G.Fisichella
+35 Laps
LMGTE Am
27
71
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO
AF Corse
D.Rigon/S.Bird
+36 Laps
LMGTE Pro
28
95
Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin Racing
M.Sørensen/N.Thiim
+38 Laps
LMGTE Pro
DNF
82
BMW M8 GTE
BMW Team MTEK
A.Farfus/A.Da Costa
LMGTE Pro
DNF
4
Enso CLM P1/01 – Nismo
Bykolles Racing Team
O.Webb/R.Binder
LMP1
DNF
11
BR Engineering BR1 – AER
SMP Racing
M.Aleshin/V.Petrov/J.Button
LMP1
DSQ
8
Toyota TS050 – Hybrid
Toyota Gazoo Racing
S.Buemi/K.Nakajima/F.Alonso
LMP1
H
DSQ
7
Toyota TS050 – Hybrid
Toyota Gazoo Racing
M.Conway/K.Kobayashi/J.Lopez
LMP1
H
DSQ
91
Porsche 911 RSR
Porsche GT Team
R.Lietz/G.Bruni
LMGTE Pro
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