Third at Silverstone: not bad, after all !

Of course, after the domination we enjoyed in the 2014 World Endurance Championship (WEC), one could be disappointed to finish “only” third at Silverstone. But in all honesty, I am rather pleased about it. Of course, the Porsches and the Audis will be more difficult to beat this season, and we probably are not going to dominate the championship as much as last year.

But Silverstone was supposed to be the most difficult race of the season for us at Toyota. For an unknown reason, that track never really suited our cars. That’s the highest-downforce’s one of the whole season, it is a track “with a difference” compared with the other ones.

After qualifying, we were 4th, but at 60 thousandth only from the second time, thus we were quite optimistic. During the race, I started 4th, and I quickly climbed to third. We were the first to keep the same tyres for two stints, which made us save 20 seconds, and we finish third, 14 seconds off the winner. Honestly, 14 seconds after 6 hours racing, that’s nothing. As Silverstone was the hardest track for us, it makes me think that we are going to do much better at Spa, our next race, and at Le Mans.

Since Silverstone, we went to the Paul Ricard circuit, in the South of France, for an endurance test. We basically got ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans: not only is it the most prestigious race of the season, but its points counts twice for the championship. And we should be quite in good shape there!!!