Hartley’s Porsche 919 wins WEC Shanghai 6hr by a full minute

Autosport

Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley dominated the Shanghai round of the World Endurance Championship to seal a second consecutive manufacturers’ crown for Porsche.

The reigning world champions’ 919 Hybrid led from halfway around the opening lap and was in control of the race from the beginning on the way to a 59-second victory.

Hartley was able to pull a gap on the chasing pack during his opening double stint and then Bernhard was able to extend the advantage over team-mate Marc Lieb during the third stint.

Toyota maintained its faint hopes of winning the drivers’ crown with second place for Kamui Kobayashi, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway, despite twice being delayed by a slow puncture.

They were back ahead of the Porsche of Lieb, Dumas and Neel Jani before the final round of pitstops.

Both Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs double-stinted their tyres through a second short stint at the end, which allowed Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima to jump ahead of the second Porsche.

Hartley said: “It wasn’t an easy race; the first stint I was pushing hard to try to make a gap.

“It was a tricky race tactically and if the #6 Toyota hadn’t had its punctures, I would have been a lot hotter at the end.”

Audi had a disastrous race at the first WEC round since the announcement of its withdrawal from the prototype ranks.

Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Olivier Jarvis were unable to keep their faint hopes of the title alive with a distant fifth place.

Di Grassi ran second for all but the first three laps of the opening couple of stints, but a refuelling problem at the first round of pitstops when the car failed to get a full load of fuel resulted in an early second stop.

The problem was not solved at the second stop, which resulted in the car losing contact with the Porsches and Toyotas.

A clash between Jarvis and Audi team-mate Benoit Treluyer meant a trip into the garage for repairs that left the car three laps down at the finish.

Treluyer and co-drivers Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler were never in the hunt and also lost time in the garage on the way to sixth in the other Audi.

The ByKolles squad took privateer LMP1 honours with the CLM-AER P1/01 shared by Pierre Kaffer, Oliver Webb and Simon Trummer after the solo Rebellion-AER R-One encountered engine problems.

G-Drive Racing dominated LMP2 on the way to a second victory of the season for Will Stevens, Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov aboard its Jota-run ORECA-Nissan 05.

They finished a lap up on the Extreme Speed Motorsport Ligier-Nissan JSP2 of Tom Blomqvist, Antonio Giovinazzi and Sean Gelael.

Fourth place for Signatech Alpine trio Nicolas Lapierre, Stephane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes was enough to give them the P2 crown even though they finished behind closest rivals Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzales in the RGR Sport Ligier.

Ford dominated GTE Pro to take a second consecutive one-two.

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell again took honours in front of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla, whose Ford GT was delayed by a slow puncture.

Aston Martin drivers Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana took a fifth class victory of the season in GTE Am.

RESULT

POSCLASSDRIVERTEAMCARLAPSGAP
1LMP1T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.HartleyPorsche TeamPorsche1956h00m27.901s
2LMP1S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.KobayashiToyota Gazoo RacingToyota19559.785s
3LMP1A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.NakajimaToyota Gazoo RacingToyota1951m06.038s
4LMP1R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.LiebPorsche TeamPorsche1951m40.855s
5LMP1L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.JarvisAudi Sport Team JoestAudi1923 Laps
6LMP1M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.TreluyerAudi Sport Team JoestAudi18114 Laps
7LMP1S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.KafferByKOLLES Racing TeamCLM/AER18114 Laps
8LMP2R.Rusinov, A.Brundle, W.StevensG-Drive RacingORECA/Nissan18015 Laps
9LMP2A.Giovinazzi, T.Blomqvist, S.GelaelExtreme Speed MotorsportsLigier/Nissan17916 Laps
10LMP2R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.AlbuquerqueRGR Sport by MorandLigier/Nissan17916 Laps
11LMP2G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.RichelmiSignatech AlpineAlpine/Nissan17916 Laps
12LMP2R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.CummingExtreme Speed MotorsportsLigier/Nissan17916 Laps
13LMP2N.Minassian, M.Mediani, M.AleshinSMP RacingBR Engineering/Nissan17718 Laps
14LMP2V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.LadyginSMP RacingBR Engineering/Nissan17718 Laps
15LMP2D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, P-L.ChatinBaxi DC Racing AlpineAlpine/Nissan17619 Laps
16LMP2M.Rao, R.Bradley, A.LynnManorORECA/Nissan17421 Laps
17GTE ProA.Priaulx, H.TincknellFord Chip Ganassi Team UKFord17025 Laps
18GTE ProS.Mucke, O.PlaFord Chip Ganassi Team UKFord17025 Laps
19GTE ProG.Bruni, J.CaladoAF CorseFerrari17025 Laps
20GTE ProN.Thiim, M.SorensenAston Martin RacingAston Martin17025 Laps
21GTE ProD.Rigon, S.BirdAF CorseFerrari16827 Laps
22GTE ProR.Lietz, M.ChristensenDempsey Racing – ProtonPorsche16827 Laps
23GTE AmP.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.LaudaAston Martin RacingAston Martin16629 Laps
24LMP1M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.ImperatoriRebellion RacingRebellion/AER16629 Laps
25GTE AmC.Ried, W.Henzler, J.CamathiasKCMGPorsche16629 Laps
26GTE AmF.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.AguasAF CorseFerrari16629 Laps
27GTE AmK.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.LongAbu Dhabi-Proton RacingPorsche16629 Laps
28GTE AmP.Ragues, R.Taylor, R.BrandelaLarbre CompetitionChevrolet16431 Laps
29GTE AmM.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.BarkerGulf Racing UKPorsche16431 Laps
GTE ProR.Stanaway, D.TurnerAston Martin RacingAston Martin1Retirement
LMP2T.Graves, R.Gonzalez, M.BecheManorORECA/Nissan0Retirement

Hartley’s Porsche 919 wins WEC Shanghai 6hr by a full minute

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