Toyota 'scared' by slim margin over Porsche at WEC Silverstone race

Buemi secured the win for himself and team-mates Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson late in the Silverstone race with a pass on Brendon Hartley's Porsche.

The high-downforce Toyotas dominated qualifying, but Porsche proved closer on race pace, with a safety car caused by Jose Maria Lopez's crash in the #7 Toyota helping the Weissach marque stay in touch.

Hartley kept close enough to the #8 car in the closing stages to emerge with an eight-second advantage when he took fuel-only for his final stop, but he was powerless to hold off Buemi on fresher tyres in the run-in.

The Swiss driver forced his way through at The Loop with 12 minutes to go, and went on to win by a little over six seconds, but he warned the small margin means Toyota still has room for improvement.

"In a way, it scares us a little bit because we were expecting to be quite a bit quicker," Buemi said.

"We have to work, because they were much quicker than us in the pitstops.

"As long as you have a pace advantage it's OK, but we have to improve our refuelling and tyre changes.

"But in the end the car was quick, and in the last stint we were on fresher tyres so knew we had a bit of an advantage.

"And normally when it rains with more downforce it can help."

On his pass on Hartley, he added: "It was one of the only opportunities I would have because they were quicker on the straight, and Brendon was kind enough to leave just enough room!

"It's been a very long time since we won, so great to start the season like that."

Porsche team principal Andreas Seidl said to get both 919 Hybrids on the podium felt "like a race win" for the German manufacturer, as its low-drag cars were ill-suited to the demands of Silverstone.

Hartley acknowledged keeping Buemi at bay would have been almost impossible, and he was satisfied to come away with second in the #2 car he shared with Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber.

"We can be happy to be only finish six seconds off, because we didn't have the right aero package for this race track," said Hartley.

"I was a bit surprised with the pace of the Toyota in qualifying, but we put all the emphasis on race pace because we knew that was the only way we stood a chance.

"The safety car definitely helped us, and at the end when Sebastien was coming quick on new tyres we decided to take track position as I had a good finish to my first stint.

"I wouldn't have been able to keep him behind for much longer, but it was a good fight."