2014 FIA World Endurance Championship

2014 FIA World Endurance Championship
Organizer	Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Automobile Club de l'Ouest
Discipline	Sports car endurance racing
Number of races	8
Champions
LMP1 Manufacturer	Toyota
GTE Manufacturer	Ferrari
LMP1 Team	Rebellion Racing
LMP2 Team	SMP Racing
LMGTE Pro Team	AF Corse
LMGTE Am Team	Aston Martin Racing
FIA World Endurance Championship seasons
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The 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season was the third season of the FIA World Endurance Championship auto racing series, co-organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The series was open to Le Mans Prototypes and grand tourer-style racing cars from four ACO categories. World Championship titles were awarded for Le Mans Prototypes drivers and for LMP1 manufacturers, and several World Endurance Cups and Endurance Trophies were also awarded.^[1] The eight race series began in April at the Silverstone Circuit and concluded in November at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

The World Endurance Championship for Drivers was won by Toyota Racing pairing Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, as they won four of the season's eight races. Davidson and Buemi finished as champions by 39 points,^[2] ahead of Audi Sport Team Joest trio Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, who won successive races at Le Mans and the Circuit of the Americas. Ten points further behind in third place, was the Porsche Team's Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb. With their victory in São Paulo, Dumas, Jani and Lieb gained the tie-break over Audi Sport Team Joest's Lucas di Grassi and Tom Kristensen. The season's other event was won by the sister Toyota team of Mike Conway, Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz in Bahrain, while Nicolas Lapierre was a part of the winning team at Silverstone and Spa with Davidson and Buemi. With five wins, Toyota won the World Endurance Championship for Manufacturers, 45 points ahead of Audi.^[2] Rebellion Racing won the two privateer trophies on offer for the LMP1-L cars, winning all eight races; five wins for the No. 12 entry of Mathias Beche, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost, with three wins for the sister No. 13 entry of Andrea Belicchi, Dominik Kraihamer and Fabio Leimer.

Consistent finishing within the LMP2 class was enough to give the No. 27 entry from SMP Racing the FIA Endurance Trophy for the class, while Sergey Zlobin won the drivers' championship. Despite only winning at Le Mans – which awarded double points, where he was partnered with Anton Ladygin and Mika Salo – Zlobin, achieved six podium finishes with four different teammates and won the championship by nine points. G-Drive Racing, with drivers Julien Canal, Olivier Pla and Roman Rusinov won four races, but retirements at Le Mans and São Paulo ultimately denied them the titles. Similarly, seven points further in arrears, KCMG with drivers Richard Bradley and Matthew Howson won three races but also suffered two retirements at Le Mans and Shanghai. Tsugio Matsuda (Circuit of the Americas) and Alexandre Imperatori (Bahrain and São Paulo) were also part of winning KCMG teams, but did not contest the whole season.

In the GT element of the series, the World Endurance Cup was won by AF Corse and drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. Bruni and Vilander took 4 victories during the season, and finished 33.5 points clear of the next best driver Frédéric Makowiecki, driving for Porsche Team Manthey. Makowiecki won twice during the season, winning with Marco Holzer and Richard Lietz at Silverstone, and with Patrick Pilet in Shanghai. Lietz and Pilet finished third and fourth in the standings respectively. The only other winners in the GT standings as a whole, was Aston Martin Racing at the Circuit of the Americas and São Paulo, with drivers Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner. In the Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Pro teams standings, AF Corse finished 20 points clear of Porsche Team Manthey. In the separate sub-classifications for the LMGTE amateur class, Aston Martin Racing won seven out of the eight races, to take a 1–2 in the teams' championship. In the drivers' championship, David Heinemeier Hansson and Kristian Poulsen won the title with four wins and four second places. They finished 34 points clear of the sister entry of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard, who won a trio of races. Third place went to Nicki Thiim, 20 points further adrift, who was a part of the Heinemeier Hansson-Poulsen entry at 5 events. The season's other winners were AF Corse at Spa, with drivers Marco Cioci, Luis Pérez Companc and Mirko Venturi.