REBELLION’S UPRISING AT SILVERSTONE
Toyota should have celebrated another dominant 1-2 finish in the 6 Hours of Silverstone after another encounter in which the two TS050 HYBRIDS fought for the win exclusively between themselves. But a shock double disqualification late on Sunday night handed a first-ever overall WEC victory to privateer underdog Rebellion Racing.
On the road, the #8 Toyota crew of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima overcame Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 to grab their third straight win by 19 seconds after a race that ebbed and flowed between the two cars. But the Japanese marque’s celebrations were to prove shortlived.
The #3 Rebellion R-13 of Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche was best of the rest, no fewer than four laps down on the Toyotas at the end. Without two fullcourse yellow periods and a safety car, that margin could easily have been six laps, with the two leaders going a lap clear of the field after just 54 minutes.
But in the end, the final place on the podium became victory when the two Toyota crews were sensationally thrown out after their cars both failed their skid block deflection tests in postrace scrutineering, something the team believed was a result of impacts against Silverstone’s new kerbs. At the time of writing, it wasn’t clear if it would appeal.
Rebellion claimed a 1-2 finish as Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer – racing as a duo after Bruno Senna broke his ankle in a practice shunt – came home fourth in the #1 R-13, although the pair lost what would have become victory when their car needed a late rear bodywork change to fix a faulty tail-light, dropping it behind the #3 machine.
SMP Racing claimed the final podium spot with the #17 BR Engineering BR1 of Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev, despite Sarrazin copping a penalty for turning across Beche’s Rebellion at Turn 1 and then Orudzhev picking up a puncture after contact with the Ferrari GTE car of Davide Rigon, which caused the safety car period.
Local hero Jenson Button – who correctly predicted Toyota’s four-lap margin over the best privateer after qualifying – didn’t even get as far as driving the #11 SMP BR1, which conked out in the first hour with apparent engine issues while Mikhail Aleshin was at the wheel.
The remaining teams in the LMP1 field both suffered diabolical races, although Dragonspeed’s customer BR1 at least made the finish in what was essentially an extended test session for a car that Renger van der Zande described post-race as “undriveable”.
Bykolles meanwhile was an early casualty as newcomer Rene Binder spectacularly ran out of talent while encountering traffic under the first FCY along the Wellington Straight, swerving off track and then spinning into retirement.
In LMP2, one team likewise dominated proceedings, only Jackie Chan DC Racing was allowed to keep its hard-earned one-two result.
The two Jota Sport-run ORECAS were never really challenged after chief rival TDS Racing dropped considerable time having to replace a broken upright, although the #38 car of Ho-pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry only just finished clear of the sister #37 machine shared by Malaysian trio Nabil Jeffri, Weiron Tan and Jazeman Jaafar.
Of note also was Anthony Davidson making his LMP2 bow for the Dragonspeed squad, but the Toyota LMP1 reserve driver – along with team-mates Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez – could do more than fourth, behind the Signatech Alpine squad, after being hit from behind by a GT car on the opening lap.