Not one, not two, but a total of three cars have been disqualified from the FIA World Endurance Championship race at Silverstone.
It was announced late Sunday evening, British time.
Both Toyota Gazoo Racing cars have be excluded from first and second place in LMP2, due to their skid block not conforming with the rules, since it was flexing too much. That block has to withstand a pressure of 2500N, but it flexed 9mm during this test, which is too much.
Porsche #91 was caught with too low ride height. The car was just 48mm above the ground, whereas the regulations states a minimum clearance of 50mm.
Both teams have the right to appeal, but both cases are so factual and well described in the regulations, that they probably will lose such an appeal.
That gives Rebellion Racing #3 with Gustavo Menezes, Mathias Beche and Thomas Laurent the overall win ahead of Rebellion Racing #1 with Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer, and moving SMP Racing #17 with Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev into third place.
Photo: JJ Media
AF Corse Ferrari #51 with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi kept their win, while Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #67 driven by Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell moves into second, and Porsche #92 with Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen now got the third place.
Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 still leads the LMP1 Championship, but only by two points to Rebellion Racing #3. Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 sits third, but only has 10 points to Rebellion Racing #1.
Porsche #92 has gotten a bigger lead in the GTE Pro, followed by Ford Chip Ganassi Racing #66, and AF Corse Ferrari #51.
Unfortunately this is the third race out of three races this season, where at least one car on the podium has been disqualified afterwards. At Spa Francorchamps it was Rebellion Racing #1 in P3 due to a too worn out skid block. At Le Mans it was LMP2 winners G-Drive Racing #26 and TDS Racing #28 (TDS Racing runs both cars), who had modified the refuelling rig, so they were able to fuel 6-8 seconds faster than all their competitors. And then at Silverstone it was three cars.
Will we have four cars getting excluded in Japan next time out? Hopefully not! It’s frustrating for the spectators, but not at least for the teams and drivers, who will miss out on celebrating the results on the podium. They deserve to be in front of the mechanics and spectators and get the attention and applause for their great achievements.
