2019 4 Hours of Silverstone: Toyota Takes the Opening WEC 1-2

The 2019 4 Hours of Silverstone opened the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship on 1 September 2019. The race was the first in the series to run over four hours, and Toyota took the top two places.

Who won the 2019 4 Hours of Silverstone?

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez won the race driving the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid for Toyota Gazoo Racing. The sister #8 Toyota finished second, 1.901 seconds behind, and Rebellion's #3 took third. It was the first race in the series run over four hours.

Toyota had the pace on the day. Rebellion had looked strong in free practice, but it did not press the Toyotas hard in the race, and Conway said afterwards that he was surprised by how little challenge it offered.

Toyota took the opening four-hour WEC round with a 1-2, while Porsche's new 911 RSR-19 won GTE Pro on debut.

Why was the race run over four hours?

The 4-hour format was introduced at Silverstone and at Shanghai for the 2019-20 season, following a fan survey, even though fans had overwhelmingly preferred 6, 12 and 24-hour races. Until then the Silverstone round had been a 6-hour race, so this was a clear change for the event.

The race also marked the return of Goodyear to international motorsport, with its brand replacing Dunlop as the tyre supplier.

What was the 2019-20 WEC calendar?

The 2019-20 season comprised eight rounds spread over five continents, opening at Silverstone in September 2019 and ending at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June 2020. The calendar was first shown at the 2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, and it was provisional at that stage, with Silverstone set as the opening round.

Which cars were on the entry list?

The first entry list, released on 17 July 2019, had 30 cars across four classes. The final field grew to 31 cars once Rebellion ran a second R13 LMP1 car, and several drivers changed before the race. Two withdrawals came because of injuries.

Pastor Maldonado left the #38 Jota car and was replaced by Antonio Felix da Costa. David Kolkmann came in for David Heinemeier Hansson on the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche, and Oliver Jarvis replaced Chris Dyson in the #6 Team LNT Ginetta. Jota and Cool Racing ran two-driver entries after Anthony Davidson and Alexandre Coigny withdrew.

How did qualifying work and who took pole?

Qualifying took place on Saturday after the third free practice session, in two 20-minute sessions, with the LMGTE cars first. The LMP1 pole went to the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, with an average lap of 1:36.015.

Each crew nominated two drivers, and the grid reference was the average of their two fastest laps. The #8 Toyota was three tenths slower on average, and the leading privateer, the #1 Rebellion R13 of Gustavo Menezes and Bruno Senna, was almost half a second adrift.

In LMP2, the #29 Racing Team Nederland car, crewed by van der Garde and van Uitert, was six tenths quicker than the #22 United Autosports car, and Michelin-shod cars took the top two places. In LMGTE Pro, AF Corse took a 1-2, with its Ferrari 488 GTE Evo cars more than half a second quicker than the competition. In LMGTE Am, TF Sport's #90 Aston Martin took pole at 1:56.034.

Was Porsche penalised after qualifying?

Yes, Porsche was fined EUR 25,000 after scrutineering at Silverstone found a homologation error on the #56 Team Project 1 car. The FIA judged that the fault lay with Porsche rather than the team, so the team itself was not penalised.

Porsche had issued a correction to the car's homologation papers at the pre-season Prologue test, and that correction was valid by 1 August 2019. Porsche did not forward the updated papers or parts to its customer teams, citing a lack of parts for delivery, and it admitted that it had not informed the FIA.

How did the race unfold?

The race started behind a rolling start and was disrupted early by a safety car and a full course yellow. Toyota then pulled clear in the middle hours, and rain in the second hour narrowed the gap only briefly, because Toyota delayed its switch to wet tyres.

Mike Conway led at the start in the #7, with Sebastien Buemi in the sister #8 close behind. A safety car came out early after the #22 United Autosports car stopped on track with an electronics failure, but the Toyotas stayed in front for about half an hour.

The full course yellow came about 30 minutes in, when the #6 Team LNT Ginetta lost its right rear wheel. Both Rebellions pitted straight away under the yellow, which briefly handed Rebellion a 1-2, with Bruno Senna in the #1 ahead of Loic Duval in the #3. The Toyotas waited longer before stopping, and that delay cost them the lead for a while.

Buemi passed both Rebellions within the first hour. Conway then overtook them too, and the two Toyotas built a gap of around 30 seconds at the head of the field.

Rain fell during the second hour. Toyota's pace on wet tyres kept the Rebellions at a distance. Pipo Derani briefly led in the #3 until Kobayashi passed him on the approach to Brooklands.

Norman Nato's #1 Rebellion locked its wheels when it pitted in the wet pit lane, and it struck three crew members. One of them was taken to hospital with a broken toe.

In the third hour Hartley let Kobayashi through at Brooklands, and that order held through the final driver changes, when Jose Maria Lopez took over the #7 and Kazuki Nakajima took the #8. The two Toyotas finished separated by 1.901 seconds.

The #1 Rebellion finished tenth after a puncture and a late power steering failure. The #5 Team LNT Ginetta finished fourth, having entered a gravel trap at one point in the race.

In GTE Pro, the Porsche 911 RSR-19 made its debut with a 1-2 for the Porsche GT Team. Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz won in the #91 car. The #71 Ferrari went out after colliding with the #6 Ginetta, and Aston Martin's #97 finished third.

The #83 AF Corse 488 GTE Evo won the GTE Am class on its debut in that class, driven by Niklas Nielsen, Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo.

What happened to Rebellion after the race?

Rebellion withdrew its #3 car from the remaining flyaway WEC races, citing budget and logistics, and expected to return only at the 2020 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The team said a last-minute decision to run a second car at Silverstone had forced it to stop Japan-bound sea freight while in Greece, to fetch enough parts for both cars.

Rebellion CEO Calim Bouhadra gave those reasons. Conway said he had expected Rebellion to challenge the Toyotas on outright pace, based on its free practice times, and was surprised that it did not.

How did Ferrari and Aston Martin react to race control?

Ferrari and Aston Martin both criticised race control over drive-through penalties handed out during the race, which were later rescinded after they had already been served. Ferrari's technical director, Ferdinando Cannizzo, said the decision had effectively ended Ferrari's chances of victory.

The #51 Ferrari had been given a drive-through for overtaking under the safety car while leading GTE Pro. The stewards later realised they had made an error, because the Ferrari had not broken the rules under the safety car regime, and the penalty was cancelled.

What were the class winners?

The class winners were the #7 Toyota in LMP1, the #42 Cool Racing Oreca 07 in LMP2, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE Pro and the #83 AF Corse 488 GTE Evo in GTE Am. The minimum for classification was 90 laps, which was 70 per cent of the winning car's distance.