Alonso/Buemi/Nakajima win at Spa

The No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 HYBRID trio claimed a famous win amid a variety of challenging rain and snow showers which hit the Belgian venue throughout an exhilarating and unpredictable race. There were four safety car periods for deteriorating conditions through the six hours, and the race was eventually red-flagged with 11 minutes to go as the weather closed in once again.

In winning, Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima are one step closer to the 2018-19 LMP World Endurance Drivers Championship which they now lead by 31 points. This title will be decided at the Super Final of the season, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]The pole-sitting No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez led comfortably until just before the half-distance mark but lost 11-minutes and four laps in the pits after a sensor problem on their hybrid system had to be repaired.

Kobayashi was over 50-seconds in the lead when the issue occurred, and he was forced to pit. The car eventually finished in sixth place in the LMP1 class.

It was a day of celebration for Toyota Gazoo Racing as the Japanese manufacturer took the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance LMP1 Championship with a round to spare.

The No.3 Rebellion R-13 shared by Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Nathanael Berthon took second place overall after a close battle with the No.11 SMP Racing car of WEC debutant Stoffel Vandoorne and his teammates Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov.

The No.17 SMP car of Sergey Sirotkin, Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev placed fourth after its race was affected by a lost wheel in the second hour.

LMP2: DragonSpeed Takes First WEC Victory

Winning #8 Toyota drivers

The DragonSpeed crew of Pastor Maldonado, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez claimed a first win in LMP2 after a stunning victory which the American team moulded in the second phase of the six-hour race.

Maldonado drove a stellar triple stint to surge ahead of early leaders, the No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA 07 and the No.36 Signatech Alpine Matmut entry.

The third Safety Car period in the fifth hour saw a fired-up Maldonado pass Gabriel Aubry and Nicolas Lapierre during his remarkable charge.

The pole-sitting G-Drive Racing car of Jean-Eric Vergne, Job Van Uitert and Roman Rusinov took second place after Vergne was able to leapfrog both the Signatech Alpine Matmut and No.38 Jackie Chan Racing cars in the final two hours.

The first hours of the race saw both of these team entries lead at stages, but the shake-up of the order under Safety Cars and Full Course Yellow periods changed the shape of the hotly contested class.

As a result, the Signatech trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet slightly extend their lead in the standings to four points over Ho-Pin Tung, Stéphane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry.

Aston Martin wins LMGTE Pro as Porsche seal title

ix hours of extreme weather conditions saw Aston Martin Racing’s No.97 crew of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin take their first win of the season in the highly-competitive LMGTE Pro category.

TS050 HYBRID #8

The conditions were horrible

Race: 1st, 133 laps, 9 pit stops. Grid: 2nd. Fastest lap: 1min 58.056secs

Sébastien Buemi (TS050 HYBRID #8): “A race win for us is very nice of course, but it was a tricky race with the conditions. I’m sorry for car #7 to have the issue when they were leading; it would have been difficult to catch them so they deserved better. We had some bad luck early in the race and I had some radio issues as well which didn’t help. It’s fantastic for the team to win the World Championship. Now we go to Le Mans with a bit of a margin in the drivers’ championship but we are taking nothing for granted. I am looking forward to a good, fair fight in Le Mans."

Kazuki Nakajima (TS050 HYBRID #8): “It was a crazy race with crazy weather. We were quite lucky to win as it was very unfortunate for car #7; I feel sorry for them. We faced a few difficulties in these conditions so there are some lessons to learn so we are fully prepared for Le Mans. It is a great achievement for the team to become World Champions; that was the biggest target here and now we can celebrate a little bit. We are focused on Le Mans and we have to finish the job for the drivers’ World Championship. We know probably more than anyone how difficult that race can be."

Fernando Alonso (TS050 HYBRID #8): “That was definitely not an easy race, with a couple of issues in the first part in addition to the weather. So the race was up and down in terms of emotions. The most important thing today was securing the teams’ World Championship. I am extremely happy for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing that we scored enough points to become World Champion; a massive well done for everyone in the team. It has been an amazing season for us and hopefully in Le Mans we can have the final, nice touch with the drivers’ title."