A win for Toyota, in fact their first 1,2 in the WEC, and a first overall WEC podium for Porsche, and for Messrs Bernhard, Webber and Hartley.
The Toyota TS040 then took first blood in the 2014 LMP1 stakes with Porsche getting one 919 Hybrid home but Audi unusually suffering a major meltdown with two separate accidents that eliminated their pair of R18 etron quattros, wrote off both tubs, and left Audi Sport with their first non-finish for a whole two car team since Petit Le Mans 2011 – The cars though had started the race in fine form and with good speed.
A much better send-off too (this time – we hope!!) for the Lola Toyota LMP1 with a fine fourth overall for the #12 Rebellion Racing machine, Nick Heidfeld playing Iron Man in a fabulous treble stint that saw the Lola progress up the order as the factory cars stumbled.
LMP2 started the week badly, saw SMP’s efforts fade early and badly – that really left two cars in it and KCMG will be left to rue pitstop errors which left them penalised out of what could have been a race long two car fight.
G-Drive then took the honours and brought home the win in their first race with a Morgan chassis. Roman Rusinov, LMP2 debutante Julien Canal and the mercurial Olivier Pla taking the honours
Dunlop got a 1,2 too in the only tyre war in the race.
GTE Pro saw Porsche continue their remarkable run of 2014 form with a dominant 1,2, settled at the end, rather bizarrely, by the long time leaders in the #91 911 RSR getting into the pits for wets as the heavens opened, moments before the Safety Car was scrambled and the pit lane closed – If the race had restarted they’d have won for sure – But it didn’t and the sister car took the win, new Works man Fred Mako bringing it home with Marco Holzer and Richard Lietz.
That means too that the 911 RSR in ‘Evo’ form is unbeaten in the WEC after taking the win at the final round last year on its debut.
Towards the end, and assisted by a wrong pit call from AF Corse’s #51 the #97 Aston Martin made the podium, the wet conditions clearly suiting the Vantage more than when the track was drier.
In GTE Am there was even better news for Aston Martin as the #95 ‘Dane Train Young Driver AMR squad took a fine win- That’s a win on his AMR debut for David Heinemeir Hansson and second consecutive WEC class wins for Bahrain 2013 winners Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim.
The #98 team made it an AMR 1,2 in the class with the #81 AF Corse 458 of (Saturday ELMS class winner) Michele Rugolo, Stephen Wyatt, and the very rapid Sam Bird finding themselves the only Ferrari on any podium.
Joining Audi and SMP Racing on the honour roll of misfortune and misadventure were 8Star who saw penalties mixed with on track incident and finally mechanical failure. The #14 Porsche was either unlucky or worrying.
AF Corse saw the efforts of two of their cars (the #51 Pro and #61 Am) 458s interrupted with flash fires, a most unusual occurrence whilst Ram Racing and Proton Competition had steep learning curves with their new programme and new cars respectively.
Overall this was a good race, not a classic, but a good race, happily dominated by the on-track action interspersed with incident, some of it weather influenced. The call to red flag the race as the rain came in earnest was 100% correct. Other Series elsewhere would do well to look and learn from the standard of stewarding and decision making on display here.
One down – Seven more to come – and Spa next!
Anthony Davidson:
“It was the perfect birthday present. A fantastic weekend really, we had some problems early and it looked like it was going to be a really long fight with the Audis. But we knew deep down it was going to rain all the time, even from Friday onwards. We were always going to be pleased with any conditions and were pretty happy when it started to rain.”
“It means so much [to win the Richard Lloyd Trophy]. His passion for sportscars was huge and I am thrilled to be the first name on any trophy, but to be on this one because I was the best BRDC driver is fantastic. Here at Silverstone, top BRDC driver, at my home race, and to win as well is a fantastic achievement. It is obviously very emotional.”
Nicolas Lapierre:
“This trophy is beautiful [Tourist Trophy], it was quite special just to win the first race of the season, with three manufacturers there is great competition, but to have my name on this trophy too is great after seeing Audi win it last year.”
Nicolas Prost:
“It was a shame last season when we thought we were saying goodbye to the Lola that we ran into bad luck, so it was nice to use it again. The Lola was a funny, great car to drive, but we look forward to getting a new car so we can be closer to the manufacturers.”
Alex Wurz:
“It was a surprise [to go onto the wets in changeable conditions while in the lead.] but we made a strategy call and the team made the right choice to put eggs in both baskets [putting the #8 on intermediate tyres], especially on Easter weekend. Unfortunately it wasn’t my basket!”
Mark Webber:
“I think it’s a great day for sportscar racing having Porsche back on the podium. It’s a massive step for us, the amount of effort that has gone in has been incredible. Timo’s [Bernhard] first two stints were phenomenal and Brendon [Hartley] was a great backbone for the team – I just got in a for a drive around at the end. The conditions were tough, but pace was an issue in all conditions. Toyota definitely deserved the win, they were too quick in all conditions. We are going to have some good races this year!”
Fred Makowiecki:
“For us it was close throughout because of the safety cars and the pace of our other car. It was so easy to make a mistake with the strategy because of the conditions, we were lucky in the end”
DHH:
“I finished on the podium five times last year, but it seemed like I was always second, so it’s great to start the year with a win. We were a little bit down on speed, we won because we kept the car on the track, didn’t make any mistakes and getting it to the end in the tricky conditions.”
