The Toyota Hybrid team has performed like clockwork to post a quinella in Round 6 of the World Endurance Championship at the Shanghai International Circuit.
In a flawless performance the combination of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson duplicated their success at Fuji last month by leading home the sister Toyota in the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
It was Toyota’s third one-two finish of the season which has helped the team hold a 39-point lead over Audi with two rounds remaining.
Despite some sensor problems for the second-placed #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, the twin V8 petrol-powered prototypes were too strong with the pair the only cars finishing on the lead lap.
After first shaking the Porsche attack and an early 21-minute Safety Car period, the Toyotas took a stranglehold on the race.
Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Stephane Sarrazin held off the #14 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani with the 919 completing the podium.
Davidson put the perspective into the event after the #14 Porsche had claimed pole.
“The race is a completely different game. We had a slightly different tyre spec to them (Porsche) that’s why we couldn’t quite match them in qualy,” Davidson said.
The #1 Audi R18 e-tron piloted by Tom Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval seemed set for fourth after a sustained attack for the final podium spot.
However a late stop with 15 minutes remaining for a splash and dash saw the #1 concede the spot to the sister Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.
The luckless #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid finished sixth.
Shortly after a pit stop Brendon Hartley suffered a left rear puncture early in the second hour that brought the #20 which he shares with Australian Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard to its knees.
After recovering, the Porsche settled into sixth place behind the pair of Audis where it would remain until the checkered flag.
With just over an hour remaining, the #8 Toyota lapped the #1 Audi of the then fourth placed Tom Kristensen.
Webber then put the Porsche back on the same lap as the pair of Audis in an inspired final stint.
In LMP2 Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal took the victory in their Ligier.
The #92 Porsche 911 RSR of Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet took honours from the #71 Ferrari in GTE Pro while Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard landed GTE Am in the #98 Aston Martin.
Alex Imperatori had a lucky escape in the early stages when the fuel pump in his LMP2 KCMG Oreca/Nissan failed with his stricken machine collected by the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia in a heavy impact.
Discussion about this post