FIA WEC: Toyota's winning streak has ended at Shanghai 4 Hours

Rebellion Racing’s Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes are the winners of the 4 Hours of Shanghai, the third round of the 2019-2020 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The trio in the #1 Rebellion R13 made the best of the maximum success handicap for Toyota Gazoo Racing’s TS050 Hybrids that slowed down Japanese cars and ended the seven-race winning streak for the Japanese manufacturer.

For the first time, FIA WEC raced at Shanghai for 4 hours, instead of 6 hours

Two Toyota crews finished the race in the second and third place. Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley finished second and took a three-point lead in the drivers’ championship. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez climbed to the third podium spot.

Thanks to handicapped Toyotas, the non-hybrid LMP1 prototypes were able to fight for the victory for the first time. In the end, Rebellion defeated Toyota while Team LNT’s Ginetta G60s finished in the fourth and fifth place respectively, not far behind Toyotas.

Shanghai 4 Hours podium

JOTA Sport’s Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez finished sixth overall and first in the LMP2 category in the #38 Oreca. They shared a podium with Will Stevens, Gabriel Aubry and Ho-Pin Tung (#37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca) and Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque and Paul di Resta (#22 United Autosports Oreca).

AF Corse’s James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi were the best among the GT drivers, taking the provisional GTE Pro class victory in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE. Two Porsche crews joined them on a podium – defending champions Michael Christensen/Kevin Estre finished second, Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz were third. However, the #51 crew has been disqualified because the post-race technical check found the car lower than allowed. That promoted the Porsche #92 crew to the first place, with the #97 Aston Martin crew taking the third place.

TF Sport’s Jonny Adam, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood gave the GTE Am class victory to Aston Martin in the #90 Vantage. Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Larry ten Voorde finished second in the #57 Porsche 911 RSR of Team Project 1. Aston Martin Racing’s Darren Turner, Paul Dalla Lana and Ross Gunn completed the podium.