While a lot of the pre-season attention focussed on the upcoming Audi vs Porsche battle, Toyota has stolen the early advantage with back-to-back victories in the opening two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

After taking the opening round at Silverstone, Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi won the race to extend their lead in the Drivers’ World Championship and actually record a third consecutive win for the #8 Toyota which also claimed the final race of 2013.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval finished a distant second and just 6.9 seconds ahead of the second Toyota of Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Stephane Sarrazin after a quick last pitstop got Duval back out ahead. The No.7 Toyota suffered from severe oversteer early in the race but Sarrazin kept the car on track until the first pitstop and after that the car was on the pace until the end of the race.

“This season is the first time I have ever led a World Championship,” Davison said.

“To win again here for one of the team’s home races, with a lot of support from the guys from Cologne, was fantastic. Sébastien did a lot of the hard work in the difficult middle part of the race so when I got in it was pretty much job done.

“It’s great we got two cars on to the podium again. Now our attention has to turn to the big one in June. I am so confident in the package we have and the team around us; it really feels like we are flourishing at the right time.”

In P2 G-Drive racing won for the second race in succession with Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal while in the GT ranks red was the dominant colour as the Italian AF Corse team took victory in both the Pro and Am categories.