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Toyota will not appeal Silverstone double exclusion

Toyota will not be appealing its double exclusion from Sunday's Silverstone round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso

JEP / Motorsport Images

The Japanese manufacturer served notice of its intent to appeal within the one-hour timescale allowed after its two TS050 Hybrids were disqualified from first and second positions on Sunday night.

But on Tuesday morning the FIA confirmed Toyota will not be pursuing a challenge to the exclusion. 

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Toyota has issued a statement with an apology to the drivers of the excluded cars from company president Akio Toyoda. 

The statement read: "I would like to apologise to the six drivers that we could not make a car with which they can win even though they drove all out.

"On the other hand, I would also like to thank our drivers for their trust in our cars and for pushing to the limit, as this meant we could learn about improvements which can be made.

"We will make our cars even stronger for the next race [in October] so that the drivers can drive all out again at Fuji Speedway and fight for another one-two victory to strengthen our challenge for the world championship."

The two Toyotas claimed a third one-two victory of the 2018/19 WEC superseason on Sunday, but were thrown out after the front section of the underfloor skid-block or plank on each car failed the deflection test. 

The rules allow for a maximum movement of 5mm, but the planks on both TS050 Hybrids exceeded this. 

Toyota claimed in scrutineering that the only explanation for the twin failures of the deflection test could be running over the kerbs and off the track causing damage to the planks' internal stays. 

This was rejected by the stewards, who said in their report that the design of the car should be able to withstand "the normal rigors of a six-hour endurance race".

Toyota pointed out that the design and construction of the plank dated back to the beginning of the 2017 season and that it had successfully passed the deflection test on previous occasions, most recently at the 2018/19 WEC opener at Spa in May.

The exclusion resulted in the privateer Rebellion R-13-Gibson driven by Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche inheriting victory.

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