A late overtake by Sebastien Buemi on Brendon Hartley handed the opening round of the 2017 World Endurance Championship to Toyota at an overcast Silverstone.
Buemi, sharing the #8 TS050 Hybrid with Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, emerged from his final pit stop with an eight second deficit to Hartley in the #2 919 Hybrid.
Equipped with a new set of Michelin tyres, Buemi laid into his rival's advantage during the final 30-minutes, eventually getting past with an opportunistic move on the inside of the Porsche at the Loop.
Hartley – who partnered Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard – crossed the finish line 6.173 seconds behind Buemi, who claimed Toyota's first victory from pole position in the WEC since Fuji 2014.
It also signalled the first win for Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima as a trio.
Despite running a less competitive low-downforce aero kit compared to the high-downforce configuration used by Toyota, Porsche was able to keep in touch with the top spot through its alternate pit strategy.
After a strong start by the Toyotas the Porsche of Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy and defending world champion Neel Jani took the lead during a bout of rain during just before the midway point.
However, the team lost time when the track returned to dry conditions because it had reverted to intermediate tyres during the shower. Tandy recovered to finish 47 seconds off race winner Buemi, whilst the sister car continued to push and saved time during a full course yellow period.
That brought Hartley out in front of Buemi, until the race-winning move was completed with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Toyota's other TS050 Hybrid retired midway through the fourth hour when team debutant José María López skidded into the barriers at Copse.
López ran onto the outside kerb upon entry to the fast right-hander, which pitched his Toyota straight-on and through the gravel.
López was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution, whilst the Toyota mechanics got to work on sending the car back out.
Mike Conway did manage to reach the finish, albeit 38 laps down.
In LMP2, Jackie Chan DC Racing won its maiden WEC event with Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent behind the wheel of the #38 ORECA 07-Gibson.
Jarvis took the chequered flag 19.376 seconds ahead of Nicolas Prost in the best-placed Rebellion Racing ORECA, and Mathieu Vaxiviere in the TDS Racing ORECA.
Ford takes GTE-Pro, Drama ensues in Am
GTE-Pro honours went to the pole-sitting Ford GT trio of Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and additional Le Mans driver Pipo Derani who led most of the contest.
Priaulx had to make an unscheduled pit stop early on when his opposite door became unhinged, placing the Ford on an alternate strategy that worked in its favour over the long run.
Tincknell brought the car home 15 seconds ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari 488, shared with James Calado.
Completing an eclectic top three in class was the Porsche 911 RSR of Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz, which took over the reins of Porsche's GT effort after a fourth-hour engine fire forced its sister car to retire early.
A dramatic finish decided the result in GTE-Am, with Singaporean outfit Clearwater Racing taking its maiden WEC victory through an incident between the second and third placed cars.
Miguel Molina (Spirit of Race Ferrari) and Pedro Lamy (Aston Martin Racing) tangled at the final corner, with ex-DTM star Molina heading into the gravel and Lamy losing time through a 360-degrees rotation.
That enabled Matt Griffin to scamper through and take an unlikely victory for himself and team-mates Keita Sawa and Mok Weng Sun.
