World Endurance Championship 2014: Toyota wins the Six Hours of Spa

Team OD Updated: May 05, 2014, 06:56 PM IST

In the 2014 season of the World Endurance Championship, Toyota are taking the fight straight to the Audis. The win at the Six Hours of Spa makes it two wins from two races for the No. 8 car of Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sebastien Buemi. This puts them firmly in the lead in both the constructors as well as drivers' championships standings.

This time, Audi ran three cars but they stayed largely anonymous. One of the main problems for the Audis was the lack of straight-line speed. However, a quick pit-stop during the second half of the race, helped the No. 1 car of the defending champions Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Tom Kristensen take second place. During qualifying, Porsche's No. 14 car took pole by more than 1.2 seconds, while the No. 8 Toyota took second and the No. 2 Audi took third.

Now, in the championship standings, Toyota have extended their lead with a total of 84 points, Porsche with 36 points and Audi has finally been able to get some points on the board with a total of 28 points.

While Alexander Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima brought the second No. 7 Toyota home in third place. The No. 8 Toyota TS040 took the lead from the No. 14 Porsche 919 of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb after the first hour of hard racing while the No. 14 car finished in fourth place. The other Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley could only finish in 23rd place. The car was plagued with mechanical troubles and after 50 laps began to struggle with its pace.

Sébastien Buemi began to hunt down first place and at the next pit stops took the lead and set about building an advantage. Sebastien Buemi began to hunt down first place and at the next pit stops took the lead and set about building an advantage.

The No.2 Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer and the No. 3 car of Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi finished fifth and sixth. In the LMP1-L class, Rebellion Racing ran their new R-One cars. They were the only entrants in the class and their No. 12 car of Nicolas Prost, Mathias Beche and Nick Heidfeld managed to pull out an impressive seventh place while the No. 13 car of Dominik Kraihamer, Andrea Belicchi and Fabio Leimer retired after 21 laps due to Mechanical issues. Their car never ran during free practice or qualifying, but was cleared for the race.

Toyota driver Anthony Davidson said, "This season is the first time I have ever led a World Championship. Sebastien did a lot of the hard work in the difficult middle part of the race so when I got in it was pretty much job done. It's great we got two cars on to the podium again". In the LMP2 class, the Morgan-Nissan of Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal extended their championship lead with a fairly easy victory with the only hiccup being a bonnet change. After Porsche's win in the LMGTE Pro class in Silverstone, the No. 51 AF Corsa Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander took its revenge at Spa. Ferrari also claimed the victory in the LMGTE Pro class with their No. 61 AF Corsa Ferrari of Luis Perez-Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi placing first; ahead of the two Aston Martins.

The AF Corse Ferrari ruled from start to finish. Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander started from pole position. The no. 51 AF Corse Ferrari ruled from start to finish. Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander started from pole position.

In a couple of weeks time, all the contenders of the World Endurance Championship will be at Le mans on the 1st of June for testing two weeks before the holy grail of the series begins at the Circuit de la Sarthe -- The legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.

2014 Six Hours of Spa: Results


Position	Drivers
1	Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi
2	Kristensen/Duval/di Grassi
3	Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima
4	Dumas/Jani/Lieb
5	Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer
6	Albuquerque/Bonanomi
7	Prost/Heidfeld/Beche
8	Rusinov/Pla/Canal
9	Tincknell/Dolan/Gene
10	Howson/Bradley/Imperatori
11	Ladygin/Ladygin/Shaitar
12	Minassian/Zlobin/Mediani
13	Bruni/Vilander
14	Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy
15	Rigon/Calado
16	Turner/Mucke/Senna
17	Macdowall/O'Young/Rees
18	Perez/Cioci/Venturi
19	Poulsen/Heinemeier/Stanaway
20	Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard
21	Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz
22	Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi
23	Webber/Hartley/Bernhard
24	Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird
25	Perrodo/Collard/Vaxiviere
26	Giammaria/Mann/Case
27	Potolicchio/Roda/Ruberti
28	Leimer/Belicchi/Kraihamer

Position	Nationality
1	JPN
2	GER
3	JPN
4	GER
5	GER
6	GER
7	SUI
8	RUS
9	GBR
10	HKG
11	RUS
12	RUS
13	ITA
14	GER
15	ITA
16	GBR
17	GBR
18	ITA
19	GBR
20	GBR
21	GER
22	GER
23	GER
24	ITA
25	GER
26	ITA
27	USA
28	SUI

Position	Car
1	Toyota TS040 Hybrid
2	Audi Sport Joest R18 e-tron
3	Toyota TS040 Hybrid
4	Porsche 919 Hybrid
5	Audi Sport Joest R18 e-tron
6	Audi Sport Joest R18 e-tron
7	Rebellion R-ONE Toyota
8	G-Drive Morgan Nissan
9	Jota Zytek Z11SN Nissan
10	KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan
11	SMP Oreca 03 Nissan
12	SMP Oreca 03 Nissan
13	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia
14	Porsche Team Manthay 911
15	AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia
16	Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8
17	Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8
18	AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia
19	Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8
20	Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8
21	Porsche Team Manthay 911
22	Prospeed Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
23	Porsche 919 Hybrid
24	AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia
25	Prospeed Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
26	AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia
27	8 Star Ferrari F458 Italia
28	Rebellion R-ONE Toyota

Position	Laps
1	171 laps
2	171 laps
3	171 laps
4	170 laps
5	170 laps
6	169 laps
7	161 laps
8	160 laps
9	160 laps
10	159 laps
11	158 laps
12	158 laps
13	152 laps
14	152 laps
15	151 laps
16	151 laps
17	150 laps
18	149 laps
19	149 laps
20	149 laps
21	148 laps
22	148 laps
23	148 laps
24	146 laps
25	145 laps
26	145 laps
27	142 laps
28	47 laps

Position	Category
1	LMP1
2	LMP1
3	LMP1
4	LMP1
5	LMP1
6	LMP1
7	LMP1
8	LMP2
9	LMP2
10	LMP2
11	LMP2
12	LMP2
13	GTE Pro
14	GTE Pro
15	GTE Pro
16	GTE Pro
17	GTE Pro
18	GTE Am
19	GTE Am
20	GTE Am
21	GTE Pro
22	GTE Am
23	LMP1
24	GTE Am
25	GTE Am
26	GTE Am
27	GTE Am
28	LMP1