Toyota Motor Corporation’s President Akio Toyoda has apologised for the team failing the post-race technical checks in 6 Hours of Silverstone FIA World Endurance Championship race.
The #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima won the event in Silverstone – its third this season ahead of the sister #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
However, in the post-race technical checks, it failed to pass the ‘front skid block deflection’ test and were disqualified from the race. The team argued that the bumpy nature of the track must have contributed to it.
However, the stewards decision stood ground. The Japanese manufacturer thought about appealing against the ruling but have since accepted the penalty with its president Toyoda apologising to the team, its drivers and the fans.
“All our drivers drove our cars with their full power and the fight for victory was truly exciting for the fans so I truly feel disappointed to lose the result. I would like to apologize to the six drivers that we could not make a car with which they can win even though they drove all out.
“On the other hand, I would also like to thank our drivers for their trust in our cars and for pushing to the limit, as this meant we could learn about improvements which can be made.
“We will make our cars even stronger for the next race so that the drivers can drive all out again at Fuji Speedway and fight for another one-two victory to strengthen our challenge for the World Championship.
“For the fans, thank you very much for your continued support. I hope you are looking forward to see an exciting race in October.”
The DQ allowed for the non-hybrid #3 Rebellion Racing Gibson of Thomas Laurent, Mathias Beche and Gustavo Menezes take an outright victory in the LMP1 class with sister #1 car of Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani (minus Bruno Senna) finish second.
The Brazilian was forced out due to a practice crash. The podium was completed by the #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering car of Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev. The win helped #3 crew to second place in the standings, only two behind the #8 crew.
