Toyota takes Sebring WEC victory led by #8 car

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its domination of the FIA World Endurance Championship by taking a one-two finish in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring on Friday as Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima recorded their third win of the season.

The pole-sitting #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid car led throughout the eight-hour race at Sebring that saw its only real competition come from across the garage as it ran closely with the sister #7 Toyota for the majority of the contest.

A run over the grass for Jose Maria Lopez when avoiding a GTE-Am car left the #7 Toyota with floor damage that forced him into a length pit stop, dropping off the lead lap in the process.

This left the #8 car without any challenge at the front of the pack, with the only threat being a late rain shower that was negotiated successfully en route to victory by one lap.

The result extends Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's lead at the top of the WEC drivers' championship to 15 points, and marks their first win since the 24 Hours of Le Mans last June.

SMP Racing completed the podium as the #11 BR Engineering BR1 AER car finished 10 laps down on the Toyotas, comfortably finishing as the leading privateer LMP1 entry as rival teams Rebellion Racing and DragonSpeed hit trouble.

Jackie Chan DC Racing took victory in LMP2 with the #37 Oreca 07 Gibson shared by David Heinemeier-Hansson, Will Stevens and Jordan King, who finished 27 seconds clear of the #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut entry.

Porsche won a hotly-contested battle in GTE-Pro with its #91 Porsche 911 RSR as Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni overturned a deficit of more than 10 seconds to the #81 BMW M8 GTE in the final rain shower, allowing them to take their first win of the year by 0.8 seconds under the Safety Car.

Dempsey-Proton Racing grabbed GTE-Am victory with its #77 Porsche by 12 seconds from the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE, while Team Project 1 managed to recover from a fire that destroyed its car last weekend to take P3 in class.