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Shanghai WEC: Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi lead Toyota one-two

Toyota recorded a fourth victory of the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship superseason with a one-two finish in a stop-start wet Shanghai race

Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi scored their second consecutive win in the #7 TS050 Hybrid, ahead of the sister #8 car shared by Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.

Heavy rain caused two lengthy stoppages in the opening half of the race, and it was not until hour four that conditions improved sufficiently to allow serious green-flag action to commence.

The #8 car had been ahead during the early stages, but the #7 managed to jump ahead because it made its second stop on a lap during which the field was being led through the pitlane.

Alonso then lost further time being held up by a red light at the end of the pits when he took over from Buemi, handing the #7 car an advantage of some 20 seconds.

That grew to as large as half a minute before Nakajima began to close the gap to Conway, but the safety car was deployed with 20 minutes to go after a crash for the #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1.

The two Toyotas held position in the final six minutes when the safety car came in, Conway crossing the line 1.4 seconds clear of Nakajima.

Jenson Button secured his first WEC podium in the surviving SMP BR1 he shared with Russian duo Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov, a lap down on the winning Toyota.

Rebellion's Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer had to be content with fourth after Lotterer dropped 16 seconds in the wet closing stages.

The #3 Rebellion lost two laps early on when Thomas Laurent hit the barriers under the safety car, but the first stoppage allowed the car to be repaired and it recovered to fifth, three laps down.

LMP2 honours went to Jackie Chan DC Racing for the third time in a row, with Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi picking up their second victory of 2018.

The #38 Oreca trio came out on top in a straight fight with the #31 DragonSpeed machine shared by Anthony Davidson, Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez, despite two late spins for Aubry.

Aston Martin secured its first victory in the GTE Pro class with its new Vantage GTE, which finished seventh overall ahead of the LMP2-winning #38 Oreca.

The #95 shared by Danish duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen took full advantage of the British marque's speed in the wet conditions.

However, the #97 machine of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin was reeled in and passed with around 30 minutes to go by Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR he shares with Gianmaria Bruni.

The Dempsey-Proton squad of Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer and Christian Ried recovered from the blow of losing all the points it has scored so far in the 2018/19 season by taking victory in GTE Am.

Result - 113 laps

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 6h01m46.414s
2 LMP1 S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1.419s
3 LMP1 M.Aleshin, V.Petrov, J.Button SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 1 Lap
4 LMP1 N.Jani, A.Lotterer, B.Senna Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 1 Lap
5 LMP1 M.Beche, T.Laurent, G.Menezes Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 3 Laps
6 LMP1 J.Allen, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande DragonSpeed BR Engineering/Gibson 3 Laps
7 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, N.Thiim Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4 Laps
8 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, S.Richelmi Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 4 Laps
9 GTE Pro R.Lietz, G.Bruni Porsche GT Team Porsche 4 Laps
10 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 4 Laps
11 GTE Pro A.Lynn, M.Martin Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4 Laps
12 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, A.Davidson DragonSpeed ORECA/Gibson 4 Laps
13 GTE Pro A.P.Guidi, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 4 Laps
14 LMP2 N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 4 Laps
15 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 4 Laps
16 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 4 Laps
17 GTE Pro O.Gavin, T.Milner Corvette Racing Chevrolet 4 Laps
18 GTE Pro M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg BMW Team MTEK BMW 4 Laps
19 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 4 Laps
20 GTE Pro T.Blomqvist, A.F.da Costa BMW Team MTEK BMW 5 Laps
21 GTE Am C.Ried, J.Andlauer, M.Campbell Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 5 Laps
22 GTE Am J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti Team Project 1 Porsche 5 Laps
23 GTE Am K.Al Qubaisi, R.Pera, M.Cairoli Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 5 Laps
24 LMP2 J.Jaafar, W.Tan, N.Jeffri Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 5 Laps
25 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella Spirit of Race Ferrari 5 Laps
26 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 5 Laps
27 GTE Am M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever MR Racing Ferrari 6 Laps
28 GTE Am Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 6 Laps
29 GTE Am S.Yoluc, J.Adam, C.Eastwood TF Sport Aston Martin 8 Laps
30 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, T.Preining Gulf Racing Porsche 13 Laps
31 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries Racing Team Nederland Dallara/Gibson 14 Laps
32 LMP2 E.Creed, R.Ricci, E.Guibbert Larbre Competition Ligier/Gibson 38 Laps
- LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, L.Duval TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson Retirement
- LMP1 S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev, M.Isaakyan SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER Retirement
- LMP1 O.Webb, T.Dillmann, J.Rossiter ByKOLLES Racing Team ENSO CLM/NISMO Retirement


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