This weekend sees the opening round of the 2019 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the 4 Hours of Silverstone (UK) where TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will begin the defence of their constructors title.
Home favourite Mike Conway leads the #7 TS050 HYBRID line-up alongside Kamui Kobayashi and José María López while World Champions Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima are joined by Kiwi Brendon Hartley, who will make his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing debut at Silverstone.
It was five years ago the Hartley made his WEC debut for Porsche at the 2014 6 Hours of Silverstone, driving the brand new Porsche 919 hybrid.
Ironically it was Toyota Racing that took a dominant one-two finish with their #8 TS040 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi taking the win ahead of the #7 TS040 of Alex Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima, which started from pole position.
Hartley shared the new Porsche with Australian driver Mark Webber and German driver Timo Bernhard. In difficult and constantly changing wet and dry weather conditions, the trio finished third after 165 laps on the 5.8 kilometre British Grand Prix track.
Hartley was delighted with the podium and was keenly anticipating developing the full potential of the all-new Le Mans prototype during the remaining seven races of the WEC.
“The best way for a team to learn about a new car is to go racing,” reflected Hartley at the time. ” It all went very well and the team did an amazing job. It was an awesome feeling to stand on the podium and spray the champagne.”
Track conditions varied from completely dry to torrential rain, with the race being red flagged because of heavy rain 24 minutes before the planned six hours were completed. Webber brought the Porsche home behind the safety car.
The sister car of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb retired after 1 hour 15 minutes because of a technical problem.
Bernard started on slick tyres but switched to intermediates as conditions deteriorated. During the first two hours the German ran as high as second place and the car was lying third when Hartley took over for the middle stint.
“The track was greasy for my two one-hour stints on slick tyres so I had to be cautious. The team made the right call on the tyre strategy and I was getting good information from the pits ,” said Hartley.
“It was an amazing feeling to bring the car back after my very first stint as a Porsche factory driver and hand it over to Mark (Webber).” Hartley had maintained third place during his two hours at the wheel.
Webber re-joined on slick tyres and then switched to full wets as heavy rain swept in across the Northamptonshire circuit.
“I had a difficult middle stint with rain on the windscreen. It was difficult to tell where the track was wet and where the line was dry. I didn’t take much of a risk in t erms of traffic, and I was careful with the tyres too. I am delighted with how this first part of my job went.”
Mark Webber echoed Hartley’s comments. “It’s been a brilliant day for us. I’m happy to have played a small role in the effort that’s gone in f rom the team and ever y one back at the factory to get to this point. Timo (Bernard) and Brendon drove exceptionally as well.
“It was unfortunate for the other car, but it wasn’t their day. It was a tough race for all the drivers with tricky conditions, and drizzle on slick tyres is never easy. We managed to dodge a few bullets and survived some of the tricky phases. It was a great exp e rience for me, I learnt so much today in the race. We were spot on with the pit stops in terms of the tyre strategy,” said Webber.
The eagerly awaited race debut of the innovative Porsche 919 Hybrid in the WEC was also deemed to be a success by the team management.
Accidents ended the race of both Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars after the World Champions had started strongly.
It was TOYOTA Racing’s sixth win from 15 WEC races, its second consecutive victory following its triumph in the 2013 season finale in Bahrain. As well as the usual winners’ trophies, the #8 crew also claimed the Royal Automobile Club International Tourist Trophy, first awarded in 1905, while Anthony Davidson won the Richard Lloyd Trophy for the highest-placed British Racing Drivers Club member.
The 2014 World Endurance Championship for Drivers was eventually won by Toyota Racing pairing Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, as they won four of the season’s eight races.
With five wins, Toyota won the World Endurance Championship for Manufacturers, 45 points ahead of Audi, with Porsche third.
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