Fernando Alonso won then lost the Six Hours of Silverstone

There’ll be lots of eyes on Fernando Alonso now he’s announced he’s leaving Formula 1. What will his next move be?

After a victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota, it’d be easy to suspect endurance racing is on his agenda. That’s what he was up to the weekend just gone, but with exceedingly mixed results.

Toyota took a 1-2 at the Six Hours of Silverstone with Alonso’s number 8 car - also driven by Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima - first to the chequered flag.

The taste of victory didn’t last long, however, with both cars disqualified after a post-race technical inspection.

“Both cars suffered damage to their respective front floor areas during the race due to impacts against the new kerbs at Silverstone,” read a Toyota statement. “Regrettably, this also caused both cars to fail deflection tests in post-race scrutineering. As a result, race stewards disqualified both cars."

“I would like to apologise to the six drivers that we could not make a car with which they can win even though they drove all out," added Toyota president Akio Toyoda. "We will make our cars even stronger for the next race so that the drivers can drive all out again at Fuji Speedway and fight for another one-two victory to strengthen our challenge for the World Championship."

There was better news for Toyota elsewhere, though, as it took victory in the World Rally Championship on the same day. Ott Tanak secured his second straight WRC victory in Germany, nearly 40 seconds ahead of championship leader Thierry Neuville in his Hyundai i20. It also happened to be the Yaris WRC’s first outright win on tarmac. Swings and roundabouts...

Silverstone images: Lou Johnson/Spacesuit Media