It was evident at Silverstone this year that Toyota was still down on power compared to the Germans. Now the TS050 Toyota hybrids have power, but not endurance.
Toyota had a disastrous outcome during an incident-marred SPA endurance race after dominating it for four of the six hours. Both powertrains of the two-car Toyota Team Gazoo blew up. Audi and Porsche benefited from the apparent engineering miscalculations that traded Toyota reliability for some badly needed speed. As a result, a Porsche 919 is now holding first place in the LMP1 Championship – even though Dumas/Jani/Lieb (FR/CH/DE) were down two laps on the field when the checkered flag dropped. First place at Spa in LMP1 went to Audi.
WEC Standings
In the run-up to Le Mans, the Manufacturers’ World Championship standings LMP1 are:
- Porsche, 54
- Toyota, 45
- Audi, 41
The #5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima was classified 27th, but earned 10 points for the manufacturers’ World Championship. The #6 Toyota of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi retired. Toyota lost the WEC championship last year because its hybrids were too slow when compared to the series and LeMans winner Porsche, and its once dominate sister-brand Audi.
It was evident at the opening race this year at Silverstone that Toyota was still down on power compared to the Germans. In a classic demonstration of the trade-offs in racing, both TS050 Toyota hybrids had significantly improved performance – but. The #5 had been leading by over a minute, with the #6 in third after an earlier accident with a lapped car required it to pit for repairs. Engine problems for both TS050 Hybrids put them out of contention.
“We consistently set very strong lap times and were able to lead the race until the last two hours. But unfortunately we experienced damaged engines on both cars. Now we will urgently address what has happened and find counter-measures before Le Mans,” said Toshio Sato, Team President of Toyota.
The Porsche team also had hybrid system problems. The trio of Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) finished second with their Porsche 919 Hybrid, and extended their lead in the drivers’ championship. After two flat tires – carbon fiber track debris is saber sharp – the sister car of Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU), which spent more than one-and-a-half hours of the six-hour race in the garage for repairs, placed 5th.
Sitting ziemlich, for the moment, is Audi. It won what it characterized as an “unusually tough” second round of WEC at Spa-Francorchamps. This seems to AutoInformed an ingenuous statement, if you have been following increasingly competitive – and expensive – endurance racing for the past several years. German arrogance here?
In temperatures above 25 degrees centigrade, at the finish only two of the six starting hybrid sports cars from Audi, Toyota and Porsche finished at the front of the field in Belgium. All were pushing hard for speed.
Victory – with a two-lap advantage – went to Lucas di Grassi/Loïc Duval/Oliver Jarvis (BR/F/GB) – in their Audi R18. It was Audi’s 106th LMP success in total since the 2000 season. But competition used to be thinner and the racing looser for many of those years.
Race result 6 Hours of Spa (BE):
- Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (BR/FR/GB), Audi R18, 160 laps
- Dumas/Jani/Lieb (FR/CH/DE), Porsche 919 Hybrid, – 2 laps
- Imperatori/Kraihamer/Tuscher (CH/AT/CH), Rebellion R-One AER, – 4 laps
- Heidfeld/Piquet jr./Prost (DE/BR/FR), Rebellion R-One AER, – 5 laps
- Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (CH/DE/FR), Audi R18, – 5 laps
- Rossiter/Trummer/Webb (GB/CH/GB), CLM P1/01 AER, – 9 laps
- Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (DE/NZ/AU), Porsche 919 Hybrid, – 48 laps
Drivers’ World Championship standings after two out of nine rounds:
- Dumas/Jani/Lieb (FR/CH/DE), Porsche, 43 points
- Imperatori/Kraihamer/Tuscher (CH/AT/CH), Rebellion, 30 points
- Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (BR/FR/GB), Audi, 25 points
- Heidfeld/Piquet jr./Prost (DE/BR/FR), Rebellion, 24 points
- Conway/Kobayashi/Sarrazin (GB/JP/FR), Toyota, 18 points
- Cumming/Dalziel/Derani (CD/GB/BR), Extreme Speed Motorsport, 12 points
- Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (DE/NZ/AU), 1.5 points
Anything can – and likely – will happen at Le Mans in June.
