WEC Shanghai: Toyota wins with dominant one-two

The #8 Toyota of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) leaders Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson took a dominant win at the 6 Hours of Shanghai - their fourth of the season - after lapping all but their sister car at the Shanghai International Circuit.

The two Toyotas pitted early under the Safety Car which was deployed when AF Corse Ferrari 458 of reigning World Champion Gianmaria Bruni collected the KCMG LMP2 car of Alexandre Imperatori.

Despite losing many positions, Buemi and Wurz clawed their way back up the WEC field thanks to the supreme pace of the TS040 Hybrid and were up into first and second places after the leading Porsches divided into the pits for fresh rubber and fuel.

At the front, the #8 Toyota stretched its legs while the #7 car had to settle for second place, with one of their drivers complaining of lack of power in a mid-race interview.

As expected, the Porsches weren’t as strong in race trim with the #14 car finishing a lap down on the leaders, despite starting from pole position. The 919 Hybrid, however, had enough pace to fend off Tom Kristensen’s #1 Audi in third quarter of the race. The straight line speed advantage worked in favour of Neel Jani and Marc Lieb who both came under attack from the nine time Le Mans winner.

A late pit stop for the #1 car eventually dropped them behind their stable mates in the #2 car in fifth place.

Sixth place went to the other Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, and Brendon Hartley who were unfortunate to pick up a puncture after their first pitstop, leaving Hartley to limp back into the pits of the km track.

In the light weight WEC LMP1 sub-category, the #12 Rebellion Racing recorded their fourth win of the season with Prost, Heidfeld and Beche behind the wheel.

None of the LMP1 teams dared to double stint their tyres with drivers reporting heavy drop off in performance of their Michelins.

WEC LMP2 - G-DRIVE TAKE CLASS WIN BY THREE LAPS

In the LMP2 category, G-Drive entry of Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal took an easy win at the Shanghai International Circuit, reducing the championship deficit to Sergey Zlobin who finished third in the Oreca 03(SMP Racing).

Extreme Speed Motorsports took second place on their return to WEC with their striking green liveried HPD ARX 03b.

PORSCHE AND ASTON MARTIN VICTORIOUS IN GTE CATEGORIES

In GTE Pro class of the WEC, Porsche took a one-two finish after the #.97 Aston Martin Vantage of Stefan Mücke blew up in smoke, with just ninety minutes to go in the race.

In the Amateur category, reliability was on Aston Martin’s side with their two cars filling up the top two steps on the podium

WEC 6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI LMP1-H RESULTS

1. Davidson/Buemi Toyota
2. Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima Toyota
3. Dumas/Jani/Lieb Porsche
4. Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer Audi Sport
5. Kristensen/Duval/di Grassi Audi
6. Webber/Hartley/Bernhard Porsche