TOYOTA takes a podium spot at Silverstone WEC

UPDATED: TOYOTA now has an eight point lead in the FIA World Endurance Championship after the 6 Hours of Silverstone race.

The original race winning Audi has been excluded for a technical infringement, handing victory to the Porsche of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Leib, with the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing TS050 HYBRID of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi moving up to second place from its original third.

With Audi’s disqualification, points have been re-allocated and as TOYOTA was the only team to get both its cars to the finish, it has 33 points, while Porsche has 25 and Audi 1.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:  TOYOTA’s Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi have finished third in the Silverstone 6 Hours, the first round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing leads the nine round championship by a single point from Audi after the other TS050 HYBRID driven by Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson finished in the points despite being delayed when bodywork had to be replaced after a puncture.

Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi had qualified fifth for the race and benefitted from the demise of other factory cars in a race won by the Audi R18 of Marcel Fassler Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.

Palmerston North’s Brendon Hartley crashed out of the lead in the factory Porsche while lapping a slower car. At the time he was 40 seconds in front. The other factory Porsche finished second and the other Audi succumbed to problems with its hybrid system.

The next round will take place at the 6 Hours Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on May 7.

 Images sourced from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing.