Toyota driver Fernando Alonso has hailed his World Endurance Championship debut "fantastic" after his team clinched victory in the season-opening 6 Hours of Spa.
Alonso, who is splitting his McLaren Formula 1 duties with a Toyota LMP1 drive this year, has partnered with Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi in the #8 TS050 Hybrid as he bids to add the Le Mans title to his CV.
The Spaniard opened the weekend with pole position after the sister Toyota car was disqualified. The trio then turned that pole into victory on Saturday.
"It was a nice debut, definitely," Alonso said after the race. "In the race I think we led basically all the laps. We had three safety cars, so we lost the advantage we had, but we just kept the position until the last lap.
"Fantastic debut, first endurance race in the world championship, amazing job by the team, one-two in qualifying and one-two in the race. Kazuki, and Sebastien in the start, made my life a little bit easier."
The win is Alonso's first in a major competition since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix when he drove for Ferrari and his last podium since 2014. When asked how it felt to be back on the top step, he replied: "I won in go-karts a couple of races! In an FIA World Championship, in F1 it was a couple of years ago in Spain, with Ferrari still.
"I was saying to the guys, this is so nice to feel the podium, I will be here all night long. Pick me up in the morning, I will try and sleep here!"
Discussing the race tactics, Alonso admitted they took it easy after their main rival, the sister #7 car, started down the order following Friday's DSQ.
"Our safe approach wasn't the quickest and we had to fight until the end," he added. "But the team is amazing. I think we executed the race to perfection. We have the one-two so it's good for the team after a long winter. Everyone thinks it's easy to do a one-two, but then you have to deliver."
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