After earning three consecutive 1-2 finishes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, both the Toyota cars were disqualified from 6 Hours of Silverstone handing the win to Rebellion Racing.
The Japanese manufacturer did not clear the post-race technical inspection and were disqualified on the basis of that after four hours after the end of the race. The stewards adjudged the cars did not pass the ‘front skid block deflection test’.
The winning #8 car’s front skid deflected 6 mm on the right hand side and 8 mm on the left hand side under the specified 2500 N load, while the #7 car’s the front skid block deflected 9 mm under the specified 2500 N load on both sides of the skid block.
As a result of which the crew of Sebastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima lost their win while Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez were stripped off from second position.
This helped the non-hybrid cars to finish on the podium as the #3 Rebellion Racing Gibson of Gustavo Menezes, Mathias Beche and Thomas Laurent inherited the win from sister #1 Rebellion of Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani – who were without Bruno Senna.
Third went to #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering of Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev with the #10 DragonSpeed BR Engineering of Ben Hanley, Renger van der Zande and Henrik Hedman completing the LMP1 runners.
The statement from WEC read: “Following post-race technical checks at the conclusion of the 6 Hours of Silverstone – a race originally won by the No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima – both the No.7 and No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID cars were disqualified from the results.
“The two Toyotas were found to be in non-conformity of Article 3.5.6.d of the 2018 LMP1-H Technical Regulations which covers the deflection of the skid block. Toyota intends to appeal the Decisions and therefore the race results remain provisional.
“Following the outcome of Stewards’ Decisions No.25 and No.26, the No.3 Rebellion Racing R13 Gibson of Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche has been elevated to first position in the final result, with the No.1 sister Rebellion of Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer claiming second position and the No.17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1-AER of Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev in third place.”
Statement from Toyota: “TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has lost its one-two victory in the 6 Hours of Silverstone following a post-race technical inspection.
“The #8 TS050 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso crossed the line to win the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship from Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the second-placed #7 TS050 HYBRID.
“Both cars suffered damage to their respective front floor areas during the race due to impacts against the new kerbs at Silverstone. Regrettably, this also caused both cars to fail deflection tests in post-race scrutineering. As a result, race stewards disqualified both cars.
“The design and construction of the part concerned has not changed since its introduction at the beginning of the 2017 season. Since then it has successfully passed similar tests, most recently at Spa this season. The team is now evaluating its next course of action.”
Further back, the second placed LMGTE-Pro entry of #91 Porsche GT Team’s Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz were also disqualified as their ride height was found to be 2mm lower than the minimum permissible 50mm in post-race checks.
The result of which promoted the #67 Ford of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx to second in class, with the sister #92 Porsche car of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre moved to third at the expense of the other Porsche.