Shanghai 6-hour race 2018

Grandstands at the Shanghai International Circuit.

The seventh 6-hour race in Shanghai , also known as 6 Hours of Shanghai , took place on November 18, 2018 at the Shanghai International Circuit and was the fifth race of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship .

Before the race

Before the race, the FIA ​​announced on November 17th that the Dempsey-Proton Racing Team in the LMGTE-Am class had lost all championship points. The software of the refueling system had been reprogrammed in such a way that the minimum downtime at the pit stop was added up to 2 seconds. This allowed the team to gain an illegal advantage during pit stops. The manipulated software is said to have been used since the Silverstone 6-hour race . For the LMGTE Pro class, Corvette Racing has announced that it will take part in the Shanghai race with a Corvette C7.R as a guest starter.

The best position in the LMGTE-Am class was achieved by the Aston Martin with the number 98 by Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana during the qualifying session. The second starting position went to the Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR with the number 77 ahead of the Spirit of Race Ferrari with the number 54 in third place. The best starting position in the LMGTE Pro class was achieved by the Ford GT with the number 66 with Stefan Mücke and Oliver Pla just ahead of the BMW team M-Tek Team of Martin Tomzyck and Nicky Catsburg with the number 81. It came in third the Aston Martin Vantage AMR with the number 97 from Aston Martin Racing .

In the qualification of the Le Mans prototypes , Jackie Chan DC Racing achieved a double pole in the LMP2 class, as in the 6-hour race at Silverstone 2018 , the third-best vehicle was the Oreca 07 entered by Dragonspeed with the number 31st Toyota a double pole in the LMP1 class; the Toyota TS050 Hybrid with the number 7 started ahead of its sister vehicle with the number 8. The best private LMP1 prototype was the Rebellion R13 with the number 1 in third position.

The race

Overtaking maneuvers during the race.

The race started in cool and heavily rainy weather behind the safety car . The rain was so heavy that several vehicles spun off the track behind the safety car. The Rebellion R13 with Thomas Laurent spun off the track and hit the track, but still managed to get into the pits on its own. After these incidents, the race management decided after only 20 minutes to interrupt the race with the red flag. The racing cars gathered on the start-and-finish straight and waited, sometimes under umbrellas and tarpaulins, for the race to resume. After the rain had stopped, the race was resumed with 4:49 hours remaining, the Rebellion R13 with Thomas Laurent at the wheel was able to resume the race 2 laps behind. Only 1:40 hours later the race was interrupted again due to heavy rain and restarted after 30 minutes. After just one lap, Mike Wainwright had an accident with his Porsche 911 RSR on the start-and-finish straight and the safety car was deployed again. The race was characterized by many safety car phases. This and the fact that the LMGTE vehicles had more mechanical grip than the aerodynamically designed prototypes ensured that even an LMGTE Pro vehicle led the field in the meantime.

Toyota scored a double victory, the trio Conway, Kobayashi and López finished ahead of the sister car with Buemi, Nakajima and Alonso. Third place went to SMP Racing with the BR Engineering BR1s and Aleshin, Petrov and Button at the wheel. The best-placed LMP2 prototype was the Oreca 07 from Jackie Chan DC Racing from Tung, Aubry, Richelmi in eighth overall position. In the LMGTE-Pro classification, the Aston Martin Vantage AMR from Aston Martin Racing with Sørensen and Thiim crossed the finish line in front of the Porsche with Richard Lietz and Bruni. The winner of the LMGTE-Am class was the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche with Ried, Andlauer and Campbell at the wheel.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	7th	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi José María López	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	113
2	LMP1	8th	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	113
3	LMP1	11	SMP Racing	Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Jenson Button	BR Engineering BR1	112
4th	LMP1	1	Rebellion Racing	André Lotterer Neel Jani Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	112
5	LMP1	3	Rebellion Racing	Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes Mathias Beche	Rebellion R13	110
6th	LMP1	10	Dragonspeed	James Allen Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1	110
7th	LMGTE Pro	95	Aston Martin Racing	Marco Sørensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	109
8th	LMP2	38	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Stéphane Richelmi	Oreca 07	109
9	LMGTE Pro	91	Porsche GT Team	Richard Lietz Gianmaria Bruni	Porsche 911 RSR	109
10	LMGTE Pro	92	Porsche GT Team	Michael Christensen Kévin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	109
11	LMGTE Pro	97	Aston Martin Racing	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	109
12	LMP2	20th	Dragonspeed	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	109
13	LMGTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	109
14th	LMP2	36	Signatech Alpine Matmut	Nicolas Lapierre André Negrão Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	109
15th	LMGTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Davide Rigon Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	109
16	LMGTE Pro	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	109
17th	LMGTE Pro	64	Corvette Racing - GM	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	109
18th	LMGTE Pro	81	BMW Team MTEK	Martin Tomczyk Nicky Catsburg	BMW M8 GTE	109
19th	LMGTE Pro	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Ford GT	109
20th	LMGTE Pro	82	BMW Team MTEK	António Félix da Costa Tom Blomqvist	BMW M8 GTE	108
21st	LMGTE Am	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Christian Ried Julien Andlauer Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	108
22nd	LMGTE Am	56	Team Project 1	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	108
23	LMGTE Am	88	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Khaled Al Qubaisi Riccardo Pera Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	108
24	LMP2	37	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Jazeman Jaafar Weiron Tan Nabil Jeffri	Oreca 07	108
25th	LMGTE Am	54	Spirit of Race	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	108
26th	LMGTE Am	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	108
27	LMGTE Am	70	MR Racing	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	107
28	LMGTE Am	61	Clearwater Racing	Weng Sun Mok Keita Sawa Matt Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE	107
29	LMGTE Am	90	TF Sport	Salih Yoluc Jonathan Adam Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	105
30th	LMGTE Am	86	Gulf Racing UK	Mike Wainwright Ben Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	100
31	LMP2	29	Racing Team Nederland	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	99
32	LMP2	50	Larbre Compétition	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Enzo Guibbert	Ligier JS P217	75
Failed
33	LMP2	28	TDS Racing	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxivière Loïc Duval	Oreca 07
34	LMP1	17th	SMP Racing	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Matewos Issaakjan	BR Engineering BR1
35	LMP1	4th	ByKolles Racing Team	Oliver Webb Tom Dillmann James Rossiter	ENSO CLM P1 / 01

Only in the entry list

No further reports are known for this race.

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Mike Conway	Kamui Kobayashi	José María López	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	Overall victory
LMP2	Ho-Pin Tung	Gabriel Aubry	Stéphane Richelmi	Oreca 07	Rank 8
LMGTE Pro	Marco Sørensen	Nicki Thiim		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Rank 7
LMGTE Am	Christian Ried	Julien Andlauer	Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	Rank 21

Racing data

• Registered: 35
• Started: 35
• Rated: 32
• Race classes: 4
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: cool and rainy
• Route length: 5.451 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 6:01: 46.414 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 113
• Total distance of the winning team: 615.963 km
• Winner's average: 160.9 km / h
• Pole position: Mike Conway & Kamui Kobayashi - Toyota TS050 Hybrid (# 7) - 1: 42.931
• Fastest race lap: Kamui Kobayashi - Toyota TS050 Hybrid (# 7) - 1: 42.708
• Racing series: 5th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2018/19

Web links

Commons : 2018 6 Hours of Shanghai  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tank cheating: Dempsey-Proton loses all points of the WEC 2018/19. motorsport-total.com, accessed on November 17, 2018 (German). 
2. ^ Corvette Racing Confirms 6H Shanghai Entry. sportscar365.com, accessed December 15, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Qualification results for the Shanghai 6-hour race in 2018. press.fiawec.com, accessed on December 15, 2018 . 
4. ↑ 6 Hours of Shanghai - Race - Final Classification. fiawec.alkamelsystems.com, accessed November 24, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Final Classification by Driver Fastest Lap. press.fiawec.com, accessed on November 24, 2018 . 

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FIA World Endurance Championship

Successor to the 1000-mile race at Sebring 2019