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Sebring 1000 Miles: #8 Toyota seals first WEC win since Le Mans '18

Toyota drivers Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi took their first World Endurance Championship race win since last year's Le Mans 24 Hours in the Sebring 1000 Miles

The #8 Toyota crew were handed a clear path to victory when Jose Maria Lopez made a crucial slip-up in the sister #7 TS050 Hybrid in the fifth hour of the race.

Lopez made contact with the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin of Jonathan Adam at Turn 15, picking up floor damage that required a trip to the pits that cost the #7 almost two laps.

The car Lopez shares with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi had been right in the hunt at half-distance, with Lopez trailing Buemi by just a few seconds at the time of his incident.

Heavy rain in the final 30 minutes prompted both Toyotas to change to wet tyres, and then again to extreme wets, as a crash for Loic Duval in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA with 12 minutes left on the clock brought out a safety car that remained on track until the finish.

Despite a late spin for Nakajima, the #8 crew hung on in the treacherous conditions to score a third win of the 2018/19 superseason by a lap over the #7.

With the 1000-mile Sebring race offering 32 points for a win instead of the usual 25, it means Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi now lead the drivers' standings by 15 points heading into the final two rounds of the campaign.

Completing the podium was the #11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1, which recovered from an early puncture to finish best of the rest - albeit 11 laps down on the winning Toyota.

The #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13 looked well set for the final podium place after both SMP cars hit trouble, the #17 BR1 dropping out when Egor Orudzhev crashed in the second hour.

But late issues for the #3 dropped it behind the leading LMP2 cars, giving the #11 car shared by Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin and ex-Formula 1 driver Brendon Hartley a spot on the podium.

The #1 Rebellion dropped out when Mathias Beche crashed while trying to lap a backmarker in the fifth hour, while the #10 DragonSpeed BR1 was ruled out with mechanical problems.

Jackie Chan DC Racing trio David Heinemeier Hansson, Jordan King and Will Stevens took a dominant LMP2 victory, finishing fourth overall.

The new drivers in the #37 ORECA took control of the class early on and established a big lead over the car's only real rival, the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA, ultimately beating Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao by 27 seconds.

DragonSpeed drivers Anthony Davidson, Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez recovered from an early brush with the barrier to take third in class, a lap down.

Points leaders Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry ended up bottom of the order, 30 laps down on the class-winning sister car, after suffering early electrical issues.

Porsche took an unlikely victory in the GTE Pro class as Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took full advantage of the late rain.

BMW had been on course for its first WEC victory after Martin Tomczyk passed the Ford of Jonathan Bomarito to snatch the advantage in hour six, and Tomczyk's team-mate Alexander Sims at one point led by more than 10 seconds.

But that advantage was lost in the pits when the rain arrived, as Porsche turned around the #91 car faster than BMW to change to wet tyres.

Tomczyk, Sims and Nicky Catsburg had to be content with second place, ahead of the #67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Bomarito, which had commanded much of the race.

Priaulx had led by more than 20 seconds before the first safety car period, but once the pack had been bunched up the Ford appeared to struggle for pace after the sun set.

The two AF Corse-run Ferraris sandwiched the #92 Porsche of championship leaders Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, who had to serve a stop-and-go penalty when Estre made contact with the Aston Martin of Darren Turner.

GTE Am victory went to Dempsey-Proton Porsche trio Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer and Christian Ried, which bested the Spirit of Race Ferrari by 12 seconds.

Project 1 Racing, racing with a spare Porsche that was hastily shipped to Sebring following the squad's dramatic testing fire, completed the class podium in third place.

Race result

Pos Class Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 LMP1 S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 253 8h00m38.186s
2 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 252 1 Lap
3 LMP1 M.Aleshin, V.Petrov, B.Hartley SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 242 11 Laps
4 LMP2 D.H.Hansson, J.King, W.Stevens Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 239 14 Laps
5 LMP2 N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 239 14 Laps
6 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, A.Davidson DragonSpeed ORECA/Gibson 237 16 Laps
7 LMP1 N.Berthon, T.Laurent, G.Menezes Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 237 16 Laps
8 LMP2 E.Creed, R.Ricci, G.Jeannette Larbre Competition Ligier/Gibson 234 19 Laps
9 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries Racing Team Nederland Dallara/Gibson 230 23 Laps
10 GTE Pro R.Lietz, G.Bruni Porsche GT Team Porsche 226 27 Laps
11 GTE Pro M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg, A.Sims BMW Team MTEK BMW 226 27 Laps
12 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell, J.Bomarito Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 225 28 Laps
13 GTE Pro A.P.Guidi, J.Calado, D.Serra AF Corse Ferrari 225 28 Laps
14 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 225 28 Laps
15 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird, M.Molina AF Corse Ferrari 225 28 Laps
16 GTE Pro A.Farfus, A.F.da Costa, B.Spengler BMW Team MTEK BMW 225 28 Laps
17 GTE Pro J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing Chevrolet 225 28 Laps
18 GTE Pro A.Lynn, M.Martin Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 224 29 Laps
19 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, N.Thiim, D.Turner Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 224 29 Laps
20 GTE Am C.Ried, J.Andlauer, M.Campbell Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 221 32 Laps
21 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella Spirit of Race Ferrari 221 32 Laps
22 GTE Am J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti Team Project 1 Porsche 221 32 Laps
23 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, T.Preining Gulf Racing Porsche 221 32 Laps
24 GTE Am M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever MR Racing Ferrari 220 33 Laps
25 GTE Am S.Yoluc, J.Adam, C.Eastwood TF Sport Aston Martin 220 33 Laps
26 GTE Am G.Roda, G.Roda, M.Cairoli Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 219 34 Laps
27 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 219 34 Laps
28 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla, B.Johnson Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 216 37 Laps
29 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, S.Richelmi Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 209 44 Laps
- LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, L.Duval TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 232 Retirement
- LMP1 H.Hedman, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande DragonSpeed BR Engineering/Gibson 143 Retirement
- LMP1 N.Jani, M.Beche, B.Senna Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 138 Retirement
- LMP1 S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev, S.Sirotkin SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 62 Retirement
- GTE Am L.P.-Companc, M.Cressoni, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 0 Withdrawn

Leading drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Fernando Alonso 135
1 Kazuki Nakajima 135
1 Sebastien Buemi 135
2 Jose Maria Lopez 120
2 Kamui Kobayashi 120
2 Mike Conway 120
3 Gustavo Menezes 81
3 Thomas Laurent 81
4 Mathias Beche 73
5 Andre Lotterer 63
5 Neel Jani 63
6 Mikhail Aleshin 56
6 Vitaly Petrov 56
7 Andre Negrao 48
7 Nicolas Lapierre 48
7 Pierre Thiriet 48
8 Bruno Senna 45
9 Gabriel Aubry 40
9 Ho-Pin Tung 40
9 Stephane Richelmi 40
10 Jazeman Jaafar 35
10 Nabil Jeffri 35
10 Weiron Tan 35

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