FIA WEC: No surprises in China, new 1-2 victory for Toyota at Shanghai

The FIA World Endurance Championship continues to be a duel between two Toyota Gazoo Racing crews. In the fifth round of the super season, which took place at Shanghai International Circut, the winners were Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. It’s their second win of the season. The #8 Toyota, driven by Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi, finished in the second place at 6 Hours of Shanghai.

The best of the rest was the #11 SMP racing crew in the BR1-AER LMP1 prototype. Mikhail Aleshin, Vitaly Petrov and Jenson Button completed 112 laps on the 5.451-km circuit, one less than two Toyotas. Three more LMP1 cars finished the race, both Rebellion crews (#1 and #3) and DragonSpeed’s #10 crew.

The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid at wet Shanghai International Circuit

Aston Martin Racing took not only the victory in the GTE Pro class but also beat the best LMP2 car. Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim finished seventh overall and scored their first win of the season in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR, completing 109 laps, the same as the best-placed LMP2 crew in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing’s Oreca. The drivers of the #38 car were Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry. It’s the third win of the season for the #38 car.

The victory in GTE Am class went to the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, driven by Matt Campbell, Christian Ried and Julien Andlauer. It’s their third win in five races this season.

The next FIA WEC round is the 1000 Miles of Sebring on March 15, 2019.