Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed a dominant victory at the FIA WEC Season Finale after the No.8 and No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID sister cars finished first and second following an epic 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

Today’s result sees Sébastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima clinch the FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship to add to the Manufacturers’ Championship title that the team won at Spa. Furthermore, Nakajima enters the history books as the first Japanese driver to win an FIA World Championship title. 

Nakajima was behind the wheel of the No. 8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID as it took the chequered flag, 16.972s ahead of the No. 7 entry. The two had been running closely together through much of the 24 hour race but late-race drama saw the No.7 drop back in the event’s closing stages.

The LMP1 non-hybrids were unable to match the Toyotas but put up a terrific fight. Le Mans debutant Stoffel Vandoorne was partnered with Russian duo Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin in the SMP Racing No. 11 car, with the trio successfully bringing the BR Engineering BR1 – AER car home in third position. The sister No. 17 SMP car retired after 18 hours following an incident at the Porsche Curves. 

Bruno Senna crossed the line fourth in the No. 1 Rebellion Racing Car, after losing time early in the race following a puncture. The sister No. 3 R13-Gibson finished fifth. ByKolles Racing Team and the No. 10 DragonSpeed BR1- Gibson were hindered with reliability problems with both cars unable to finish.

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