Brendon Hartley has wrestled himself to a second-place finish at the Six Hours of Spa, 34-seconds off the lead as heavy rain flooded the circuit and played havoc for many of the big guns.
Though there was no drama for the sister Toyota who fronted a dominant 1-2 result for the Japanese manufacturer.
Hartley’s co-driver Sebastien Buemi took the start in the No.8 Toyota and after four laps behind the Safety Car the race was finally waved green.
After their crushing performance in qualifying, Rebellion flounder in the wet conditions and was swamped by both hybrid-powered Toyotas on the short run into Le Source.
The No.8 had established a comfortable margin over their teammates across the opening stint, aided by carrying a lessened success handicap and when the first round of pitstops surfaced Toyota opted to stick with the wet tyres for the race leader.
The sister Toyota then made the call for slicks at the first pitstop just before Paul Dalla Lana beached the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR in the gravel, bringing out the safety car. This meant the No.8 had to return to the lane to don the slicks, relinquishing the lead.
The No.7 Toyota then charge to a 40-second lead before the third Safety Car was deployed with a little over two hours to run on the clock.
Both Toyota’s pitted and Hartley was given control of the No.8 but his car encountered an electric gremlin leaving the lane, costing valuable time as the team desperately tried to get the car running on full power.
After the fourth and final Safety Car was deployed after the Signatech LMP2 car crashed heavily at Turn 16 both Toyotas made their last stops, with the race winner well determined as the No.8 was instructed to hold position off the restart in an orchestrated finish.
Nato, Gustavo Menezes and Bruno Senna were able to recover to third for Rebellion, while ByKolles experienced a difficult race.
Paul di Resta, Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson took their third consecutive WEC win in LMP2 for United Autosports.
Albuquerque started the No.22 ORECA 07-Gibson from pole and resisted a late challenge by Racing Team Nederland crew who had started last after a qualifying mishap.
The race was only decided in the final hour after a daring move by di Resta at Eau Rouge on his out lap to overtake the Nederland car, going on to claim a memorable race win.
Predictably, Porsche triumphed the GTE-Pro category as Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen claimed victory after capitalising on an error by the Aston Martin crew in the final 20-minutes after the final Safety Car regrouped the field and several drivers opted for a splash of fuel.
Ferrari executed a strong fightback in the GTE-Am class with Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard taking victory in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
Matt Campbell helped guide the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR to second in class and 17th overall.
