Podium Start at Silverstone

Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi crossed the line in third to extend Toyota's run of podiums at Silverstone which stretches back to its first WEC season in 2012.

However, that became second place when the winning #7 Audi was excluded due to a technical infringement. That decision gave victory to the #2 Porsche.

Mike's third podium in WEC meant he earned the Richard Lloyd Trophy, presented to the highest placed member of the British Racing Drivers' Club in the 6 Hours of Silverstone.

Kamui marked his LMP1 debut, and his first race at the wheel of a Toyota since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with a strong performance on his way to the podium.

The #5 of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima had also been on course for a strong result until a puncture severely damaged the rear of the car. It finished 16th.

On a sunny day, in contrast to yesterday's snow, the TS050 Hybrid made a solid race debut, illustrating its potential by setting a fastest lap just 0.354secs behind the overall quickest.

More is required from the car in future races as the team continuously improves its understanding of the settings necessary to get maximum performance out of the new, efficient 2.4litre turbocharged engine and 8MJ hybrid system.

In the early part of the race, the two TS050 Hybrids ran close together after starting fifth and sixth as Sébastien in the #5 found his way past Mike in the other car, while incidents for the #1 Porsche and #8 Audi elevated the Toyotas into third and fourth.

At half distance, the #5 was third but encountered trouble of its own with a right rear puncture. Unluckily, the puncture occurred just after pit entry, meaning Kazuki completed a full 5.901km lap at slow speed whilst the damaged tyre ripped off significant amounts of rear bodywork.

Intense work from the mechanics got the car back on track after 41 minutes of repairs, with Sébastien resuming in 29th, 24 laps behind.

The #5 crew fought hard to regain ground in the search for World Championship points, while the sister car showed promising speed and matched the leaders' lap times in the closing stints.

The #6 car took the chequered flag in front of 52,000 fans (weekend total). By virtue of being the only LMP1-Hybrid manufacturer to get both cars to the chequered flag, Toyota leads the World Championship after the first of nine rounds.

Toyota GAZOO Racing is in action again next month at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on 7 May, a race which takes place just 120km away from the team's home base in Cologne, Germany.