Both Toyotas excluded at Silverstone, Rebellion wins

The #8 and #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrids dominated the event, finishing four laps clear of the third-placed #3 Rebellion R-13 Gibson as Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima scored their third straight WEC victory.

But in post-race scrutineering, the two Japanese cars failed their skid block deflection tests.

The front part of the winning #8 car's skid block was reported to have "deflected 6mm on the right-hand side and 8mm on the left-hand side under the specified 2500 N load at the front of the skid block".

The second-placed #7 Toyota's infraction was slightly different, as “the front part of the skid block deflected 9mm under the specified 2500 N load on both sides of the skid block".

It means Rebellion drivers Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche inherit victory, ahead of the sister #1 car of Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer.

SMP Racing pair Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev move up to the final place on the podium.

Stewards' bulletins relating to the exclusion of both Toyotas said the team had explained that both its cars sustained damage to their skid blocks in-race but that this was not deemed a valid excuse.

They read: "Although there are no reports of the car being involved in any specific incident, the competitor stated that his only explanation for the non-conformity must have been as a result of the car running off-track and sustaining some sort of damage to the internal stays that fix that portion of the car.

"The stewards considered this possibility but determined that the design of the car must be able to withstand the normal rigors of a 6 hours endurance race.”

The #3 Rebellion inherited what became victory as a result of the #1 car requiring a change of rear bodywork in the final hour in order to fix a faulty tail-light.

UPDATE: Toyota's response...

Following the news of the exclusion of both of its cars, a statement from Toyota read: "Both cars suffered damage to their respective front floor areas during the race due to impacts against the new kerbs at Silverstone. Regrettably, this also caused both cars to fail deflection tests in post-race scrutineering. As a result, race stewards disqualified both cars.

"The design and construction of the part concerned has not changed since its introduction at the beginning of the 2017 season. Since then it has successfully passed similar tests, most recently at Spa this season.

"The team is now evaluating its next course of action."

Revised race results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time/Gap
1	3	Mathias Beche   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	193	6:02'10.579
2	1	Andre Lotterer   Neel Jani	Rebellion R13	LMP1	192	1 Lap
3	17	Stéphane Sarrazin   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	192	1 Lap
4	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	185	8 Laps
5	37	Nabil Jeffri   Weiron Tan   Jazeman Jaafar	Oreca 07	LMP2	185	8 Laps
6	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	183	10 Laps
7	31	Anthony Davidson   Pastor Maldonado   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	181	12 Laps
8	29	Giedo van der Garde   Nyck de Vries   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	181	12 Laps
9	50	Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed   Yoshiharu Mori	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	176	17 Laps
10	28	Loic Duval   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	173	20 Laps
11	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	172	21 Laps
12	67	Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	172	21 Laps
13	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	172	21 Laps
14	97	Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	171	22 Laps
15	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	171	22 Laps
16	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	170	23 Laps
17	77	Christian Ried   Matt Campbell   Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	168	25 Laps
18	90	Jonathan Adam   Salih Yoluc   Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	168	25 Laps
19	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	168	25 Laps
20	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	168	25 Laps
21	61	Matthew Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	167	26 Laps
22	86	Michael Wainwright   Benjamin Barker   Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	167	26 Laps
23	70	Olivier Beretta   Eddie Cheever III   Motoaki Ishikawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	167	26 Laps
24	88	Gianluca Roda   Matteo Cairoli   Giorgio Roda	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	167	26 Laps
25	10	Henrik Hedman   Renger van der Zande   Ben Hanley	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	165	28 Laps
26	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	158	35 Laps
27	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	157	36 Laps
28	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	155	38 Laps
29	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Augusto Farfus	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	116	77 Laps
30	4	Oliver Webb   Rene Binder	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	59	134 Laps
31	11	Jenson Button   Vitaly Petrov   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	23	170 Laps
DQ	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	197	-
DQ	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	197	-
DQ	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	172	-