Double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso returned to the top of the podium when he won his debut World Endurance Championship (WEC) race with Toyota at Belgium's Spa circuit on Saturday.

The McLaren F1 driver, sharing his TS050 hybrid No. 8 car with Japan's Kazuki Nakajima and Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi, led a Toyota one-two in the season-opening Six Hours of Spa.

The victory, from pole, was Alonso's first in any motorsport championship since he won his home Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari in 2013.

Alonso is competing in both the WEC and Formula One this season in a bid to become only the second driver, after Britain's Graham Hill, to take the so-called Triple Crown of Motorsport.

That involves the Formula One title, or Monaco Grand Prix which he has also won, the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race and the Indianapolis 500. Alonso will race Le Mans in both 2018 and 2019 with Toyota.

The Spaniard entered the Indy 500 last year, leading the race for a while before retiring with engine trouble.

Two of the three Toyotas dropped out before half distance, and the other one is too far back to challenge for victory
17th June 2017

Toyota has finished second at Le Mans on four occasions and come achingly close to victory at least three times, most famously in 2016 when Kazuki Nakajima broke down on the final lap.

So for 2017 Toyota went all-out to win the race, sending three of its TS050 Hybrids to Le Mans in the hope of beating Porsche to capture its first Le Mans victory. With no more Audi to contend with 2017 was surely Toyota’s best chance to win the race.

It all started off so well. Kamui Kobayashi shattered the track record in qualifying and in the race the No.7 car was easily leading from the No.1 Porsche, with the No.8 Toyota not far behind. The other Porsche was out of contention too having hit mechanical troubles early in the race. If Toyota couldn’t win from this position, when would they ever win?

But then the Toyota curse started to hit.