Mike Conway finally won the Silverstone round of the FIA World Endurance Championship on Sunday, taking the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to victory alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez at the season-opening 4 Hours of Silverstone.
Since joining the WEC in 2013, the British driver had not been able to win his race until Sunday. In 2013, the Brompton native finished sixth in LMP2 with G-Drive before joining Toyota. He then did not compete in the 2014 race, but competed in every round from 2015 onwards. He took a fourth place finish that year, followed by a second place finish in 2016, thirteenth in 2017 and a disqualification last year.
Yeah, great to win here, Silverstone, home race. I’ve been trying it a few times, but good to get it done," Conway said in the post-race press conference. "It was tight race, as always, with the sister car. First it was quite good, but then we lost time in the pits and lost position, difficult to recover in the second stint. Kamui had a real tough stint with the weather conditions, and did a stellar job. Jose as well, pulled out some really good lap times at the end there and pulled a nice comfortable gap to car eight."
The weekend was anything but smooth for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Conway's team-mate Kobayashi spun over the kerbs at Becketts after minor contact with a Rebellion. This damaged the chassis, leading the team to rebuild the car around a new monocoque overnight.
Great job by the guys all weekend," Conway continued. "They’ve been lacking a bit of sleep, been really busy in the garage with some car changes and stuff that we had to do, so big thank you to them."
The win allowed Conway to pick up the historic RAC Tourist Trophy, which has been awared to the likes of Tazio Nuvolari, Graham Hill and Sir Stirling Moss.
Yeah, it’s great, I’ve seen Anthony [Davidson] win it a few times," Conway commented. "It’s lovely trophy, one I’ve always wanted to win and as you said, some great previous winners on here, I’m just reading a few now. It’s pretty cool, so it’s great to be on the list now."
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