Shanghai WEC: Toyota back on top in final practice
Toyota returned to the top of the timesheets in final practice for this weekend's Shanghai FIA World Endurance Championship round, beating the best of the privateer LMP1s by one second.
Photo by: Adrenal Media
After the Japanese manufacturer was outpaced in both Friday's sessions, Kamui Kobayashi set the quickest time of the weekend so far in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, a 1m47.184s, to outpace the best of the Team LNT Ginettas by 1.009s.
Kobayashi's time came right at the start of the 60-minute session in a qualifying simulation.
SMP Racing-backed Egor Orudzhev set the best time in the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 of 1m48.193s, fractionally slower than Charlie Robertson's session-topping FP2 effort.
The sister #6 car of Mike Simpson was third-fastest on a 1m48.680s, while the solo Rebellion R-13 was fourth-fastest on a 1m49.450s set by Gustavo Menezes.
Toyota's #8 car was slowest of the LMP1s and down in 10th place overall behind the bulk of the LMP2 field, 3.293s off the pace in the hands of Brendon Hartley.
Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries set the pace in LMP2 in the Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07, his time of 1m49.637s shading Will Stevens' best effort in the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca by a little over a tenth.
Antonio Felix da Costa made it two JOTA Sport-run cars in the top three in the Goodyear-liveried #38 Oreca, a further tenth back.
Porsche led the way in GTE Pro thanks to Michael Christensen's early effort of 1m58.786s at the wheel of the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
That was nearly a full second up on James Calado's best time in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, while Marco Sorensen made it three different manufacturers in the top three in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
GTE Am was also topped by Porsche, with Matteo Cairoli posting a 2m00.109s in the #56 Team Project 1 car.
The session was red-flagged with three minutes left on the clock after Francesco Castellacci's AF Corse Ferrari rear-ended Bruno Senna in the Rebellion at the Turn 14 hairpin, leaving debris on the track.
Qualifying and the full 4 Hours of Shanghai will be shown live on Motorsport.tv. Check times here.
Session results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 28 | 1'47.184 | |
2 | 5 |
Jordan King
Ben Hanley Egor Orudzhev |
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 27 | 1'48.193 | 1.009 |
3 | 6 |
Charles Robertson
Michael Simpson Guy Smith |
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 24 | 1'48.680 | 1.496 |
4 | 1 |
Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 23 | 1'49.450 | 2.266 |
5 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 26 | 1'49.637 | 2.453 |
6 | 37 |
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 27 | 1'49.748 | 2.564 |
7 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 25 | 1'49.879 | 2.695 |
8 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 23 | 1'49.890 | 2.706 |
9 | 36 |
Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 21 | 1'50.465 | 3.281 |
10 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 25 | 1'50.477 | 3.293 |
11 | 42 |
Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 24 | 1'51.058 | 3.874 |
12 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 23 | 1'51.256 | 4.072 |
13 | 33 |
Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 26 | 1'52.683 | 5.499 |
14 | 92 |
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 20 | 1'58.786 | 11.602 |
15 | 51 |
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 24 | 1'59.611 | 12.427 |
16 | 95 |
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 22 | 1'59.764 | 12.580 |
17 | 97 |
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 20 | 1'59.832 | 12.648 |
18 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 21 | 1'59.883 | 12.699 |
19 | 71 |
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 26 | 1'59.952 | 12.768 |
20 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
David Heinemeier Hansson Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 23 | 2'00.109 | 12.925 |
21 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Darren Turner Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 22 | 2'00.579 | 13.395 |
22 | 88 |
Angelo Negro
Will Bamber Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 23 | 2'00.606 | 13.422 |
23 | 90 |
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 22 | 2'00.610 | 13.426 |
24 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 2'00.772 | 13.588 |
25 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 24 | 2'01.093 | 13.909 |
26 | 78 |
Philippe Prette
Louis Prette Vincent Abril |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 2'01.126 | 13.942 |
27 | 57 |
Ben Keating
Larry ten Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 2'01.222 | 14.038 |
28 | 62 |
Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 24 | 2'01.346 | 14.162 |
29 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 24 | 2'01.449 | 14.265 |
30 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 2'01.506 | 14.322 |
31 | 70 |
Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 26 | 2'02.049 | 14.865 |
View full results |
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