Alonso: WEC title more important than 2nd Le Mans victory

Fernando Alonso says claiming a maiden world championship in sports car racing is his priority with Toyota in the next six weeks, prioritising it over a second win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Alonso sits at the top of the FIA World Endurance Championship drivers’ standings ahead of Saturday’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, jointly sharing the lead with co-drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.

The trio leads Toyota teammates Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi by 14 points in the LMP1 standings.

Having already won Le Mans last June, Alonso said that winning the world championship felt more important to him than a possible second victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

“I think it’s probably being world champion,” Alonso said.

“Winning Le Mans is obviously amazing, if it can happen.

“But if you have to choose one of the two, I would like to be world champion after winning Le Mans once, [rather] than winning Le Mans two times and losing the world championship.

“But I think if you win Le Mans two times, automatically you are world champion because in the position we are, it should be enough.”

Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi will be crowned world champions at Spa on Saturday if they manage to win the race and Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi fail to score any points.

Were Alonso to win the title, it would be his first FIA world championship win since his most recent F1 title in 2006. It would also mark Buemi's second WEC championship win, and be Nakajima's first.

But given Toyota has crossed the line first and second at every race so far in the WEC season, it looks likely the title fight will continue to Le Mans in June.

Toyota is however poised to clinch the LMP1 teams’ world championship title on Saturday at Spa.

It sits 54 points clear of Rebellion Racing ahead of the race, requiring a lead of 39 points going to Le Mans to have the title sewn up.

It would mark Toyota’s second major LMP1 title win, following its success in the now-defunct WEC manufacturers’ championship in 2014.