If the opening round of the 2014 World Endurance Championship serves as a good pointer of how this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans is going to be like, then Audi would definitely have to step up the game as Toyota and Porsche are surging in with great force. And after the recent showdown at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, Toyota showed their worth as they grabbed the top spot in the new TS040 Hybrid.
Although a heavy downpour brought the race to an end 24 minutes earlier, Toyota had still managed to secure a one-two finish with the #8 TS040 Hybrid driven by Anthony Davidson, Nicholas Lapierre and Sebastien Buemi crossing the finish line first, followed by car #7 with Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima coming in second.
Porsche had shown great potential as the #20 919 Hybrid finished the race in third. Piloted by Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and ex-Red Bull F1 racer Mark Webber, this was a great start for Porsche’s return to the top level of endurance racing. However, they will still have to put more work on the cars as the #14 919 Hybrid failed to finish the race due to technical issues.
As for the Four Rings, accidents had brought their outing to a premature end for both the team’s R18 e-tron Quattro prototypes. Lucas di Grassi lost control of car #1 and crashed it into the guard rails, while Benoit Treluyer also slid off the circuit, causing damage to the car’s front end.
The next race will be the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at Belgium, taking place on May 3. The highlight of the season will come afterwards in the form of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14.
