Former Formula One star Mark Webber hailed Porsche’s return to sportscar racing as ‘a great day’ after he helped the German team to a podium place.
By Giles Richards/theguardian.com
Porsche marked their return to the pinnacle of sportscar racing with a podium spot behind a one-two lock-out for Toyota in the first race of the new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season, the Six Hours of Silverstone.
It began with the furious, white-heat intensity of a sprint race and ended in a deluge that appeared to dent the teams’ and fans’ enthusiasm for the series, which boasts three major manufacturers at the sharp end, not one jot.
Britain’s Anthony Davidson, alongside teammates Sbastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre, took the win in the No8 Toyota TS040, after gaining an advantage during light rain early in the race, staying on inters, while the sister No7 car switched to full wets which proved to be the wrong choice as the rain dissipated.
The No8 held the lead until the race was red-flagged due very heavy rain that swamped the circuit just under 30 minutes from the finish. Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Stphane Sarrazin in the No7 Toyota took second and Mark Webber, in his first race since leaving Formula One, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley brought the Porsche 919 Hybrid home in third place on the car’s first competitive outing.
Success for Porsche and Toyota then, but also for the series itself, which has undergone radical regulation changes this season, to which the teams have adapted with considerably less fuss than their counterparts in F1.
Proving popular
About 43,000 fans attended the weekend at Silverstone, suggesting that the format and presence of three major manufacturers in the top LMP1 category is proving popular. At the heart of the new regulations is the principle of a reduction in the use of fossil fuel, by placing a limit on the amount of energy that can be used by the cars over a lap.
The teams are then free to choose the method that will best generate the power, allowing innovation and experimentation, long gone from other formulae.
Toyota’s new TS040 Hybrid runs a petrol engine, with a four-wheel drive super-capacitor-based energy recovery system (ERS), Porsche a V4 petrol turbo, with a battery ERS based on the front axle and heat from the turbo, and Audi, a diesel engine with a front-axle flywheel ERS. The net result on display at Silverstone was the same high performance expected from prototypes but with up to a 30% reduction in fuel consumption.
Untested and brand-new technology has given Toyota the edge in the first meeting of this eight-race season. “It is brilliant to win my home race, the team did a fantastic job all weekend,” said Davidson.
“It looked like it would be an epic fight with Audi and Porsche if it had stayed dry, but we knew the rain was coming and we had set our car up for wet conditions. We made the right call on tyres, the strategy was just perfect; that’s how you win races.”
And winning will be firmly on the radar for the team this year, having closed last season with victory in Bahrain and a second place at the series’ blue-riband event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This is the Toyota’s third year in the championship, when traditionally equipment and skills are expected to be honed sufficiently to make a tilt at both the title and the 24. At Silverstone they not only had the reliability to do so but, after frenetic battling with Audi during the first hour, proved their drivers are more than happy to make a fight of it.
Pleased with their return
Porsche, too, back in the top prototype class for the first time since their win with the 911 GT1 at Le Mans in 1998, will be pleased with their return. Their second 919, driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, had to retire after 30 laps due to a hydraulic problem but for Webber’s No20 to make it to the finish, and in a podium spot although two laps off the winner, was a more than satisfactory opening for both driver and team.
One consolidated by a hugely strong showing by the new 911 RSR taking a one-two in the GTE-Pro class on its WEC debut.
Webber will no doubt have watched with a wry smile as his old teammate Sebastian Vettel had difficulty with team orders again at the grand prix in China on Sunday morning after the pair’s incident in Malaysia in 2013 . Webber played down expectations, saying before the race, “to get through six hours will be an interesting challenge for us, we might be sitting back watching a bit and learning. It’s a fact we have work to do in this type of racing”, so this result will offer genuine pleasure for the Australian driver.
In contrast. Audi, the dominant force in endurance racing for the past decade and twice WEC world champions, had a very rare, terrible day at the office, with both their R18 e-tron quattros having to retire after driver errors.
They had shown good early pace and taken the lead from Toyota but Lucas di Grassi put his car in the wall at Woodcote during the first wet period and then Benot Trluyer lost his back end at Copse and flicked into the inside barrier after 94 laps.
It is the first double retirement for the team since Petit Le Mans in 2011 and the first time they have failed to make the podium in the WEC. With both tubs damaged they face a huge amount of work to make the season’s second round at Spa on 3 May, the final race before Le Mans in June.
The team will make it, of course, their dominance has not been accidental after all, but on the evidence of this opening race, and the competition from Toyota and Porsche, they are in for a fierce, season-long fight.
Guardian News and Media
