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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: Toyota Wins Shanghai WEC Finale
Toyota takes dominant win; Audi's Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler claim World Championship...
Toyota scored its third FIA WEC victory of the season following another dominant run in Sunday's Six Hours of Shanghai. (Photo: John Dagys)
Toyota scored its third FIA World Endurance Championship victory of the year in what was another commanding performance by the Japanese manufacturer in the Six Hours of Shanghai.
The No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre ran like clockwork in Sunday's season-ender, taking a 58.570-second victory over the pair of Audi R18 e-tron quattros, which were unable to match the pace or tire longevity of the gasoline-powered hybrid yet again.
“Maybe it looked easy on TV but Nicolas and I gave it everything," Wurz said. "These races are never simple but we were very determined to win this race for Toyota and give everyone extra motivation over the winter.
"I really enjoyed it today and I couldn’t wish for a better team-mate, although of course we missed Kazuki this weekend. It has been a terrific season for us."
While the No. 2 Audi of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen came home in second, it was their teammates Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler that were crowned World Champions, thanks to their third place result.
"It was not easy today but we were not under so much pressure," Lotterer admitted. "We had a good season all the way through, so we came here with some points advantage.
"We had two options. In case we were competitive, go for the victory and try to beat the Toyota. But that was not an option today. I was just careful of driving the car home because that's what mattered for us."
The drivers' title completed a banner year for Audi, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also clinched the Manufacturers' World Championship four races early.
Rebellion Racing capped off a memorable three-week stretch by leading the charge for the LMP1 privateers for the second consecutive race.
However, it was the Anglo-Swiss squad's No. 13 Lola B12/60 Toyota of Andrea Belicchi Harold Primat and local driver "Frankie" Cong Fu Chen that took fourth overall after the sister car of Nicolas Prost lost drive with less than 10 minutes remaining.
The DNF for Petit Le Mans winners Prost and Neel Jani ended up being costly, as they lost third in the Drivers' World Championship to Toyota's Wurz and Lapierre. It came despite the Toyota duo missing the first two rounds of the season and not finishing at Le Mans.
LMP2 saw ADR-Delta take its second consecutive class victory, thanks to an equally flawless run by the No. 25 Oreca 03 Nissan of John Martin, Tor Graves and Mathias Beche.
Martin crossed the line less than 40 seconds ahead of the No. 44 Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX-03b of Stephane Sarrazin, which made an additional pit stop early due to a puncture for the Frenchman.
Sarrazin clawed back nearly one minute in the closing hours, yet it wasn't enough to give the American squad the victory.
"The team has done an amazing job all year," race winner Martin said. "We had a few little issues in Brazil and Bahrain. Had it not been that, I felt like we could have pushed Starworks really hard for the championship.
"It's good to get second [in the championship]. That was our sole aim, really, this weekend... We had a strategy from the start and stuck to it all day."
Starworks, which capped off a remarkable season with its seventh podium in eight races, which included class wins at Sebring and Le Mans and the LMP2 championship.
The final podium position in LMP2 went to the No. 24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla, Matthieu Lahaye and Jacques Nicolet, which saw the French team go winless in the FIA WEC this year.
PHOTOS: Six Hours of Shanghai Gallery
The No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre ran like clockwork in Sunday's season-ender, taking a 58.570-second victory over the pair of Audi R18 e-tron quattros, which were unable to match the pace or tire longevity of the gasoline-powered hybrid yet again.
“Maybe it looked easy on TV but Nicolas and I gave it everything," Wurz said. "These races are never simple but we were very determined to win this race for Toyota and give everyone extra motivation over the winter.
"I really enjoyed it today and I couldn’t wish for a better team-mate, although of course we missed Kazuki this weekend. It has been a terrific season for us."
While the No. 2 Audi of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen came home in second, it was their teammates Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler that were crowned World Champions, thanks to their third place result.
"It was not easy today but we were not under so much pressure," Lotterer admitted. "We had a good season all the way through, so we came here with some points advantage.
"We had two options. In case we were competitive, go for the victory and try to beat the Toyota. But that was not an option today. I was just careful of driving the car home because that's what mattered for us."
The drivers' title completed a banner year for Audi, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also clinched the Manufacturers' World Championship four races early.
Rebellion Racing capped off a memorable three-week stretch by leading the charge for the LMP1 privateers for the second consecutive race.
However, it was the Anglo-Swiss squad's No. 13 Lola B12/60 Toyota of Andrea Belicchi Harold Primat and local driver "Frankie" Cong Fu Chen that took fourth overall after the sister car of Nicolas Prost lost drive with less than 10 minutes remaining.
The DNF for Petit Le Mans winners Prost and Neel Jani ended up being costly, as they lost third in the Drivers' World Championship to Toyota's Wurz and Lapierre. It came despite the Toyota duo missing the first two rounds of the season and not finishing at Le Mans.
LMP2 saw ADR-Delta take its second consecutive class victory, thanks to an equally flawless run by the No. 25 Oreca 03 Nissan of John Martin, Tor Graves and Mathias Beche.
Martin crossed the line less than 40 seconds ahead of the No. 44 Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX-03b of Stephane Sarrazin, which made an additional pit stop early due to a puncture for the Frenchman.
Sarrazin clawed back nearly one minute in the closing hours, yet it wasn't enough to give the American squad the victory.
"The team has done an amazing job all year," race winner Martin said. "We had a few little issues in Brazil and Bahrain. Had it not been that, I felt like we could have pushed Starworks really hard for the championship.
"It's good to get second [in the championship]. That was our sole aim, really, this weekend... We had a strategy from the start and stuck to it all day."
Starworks, which capped off a remarkable season with its seventh podium in eight races, which included class wins at Sebring and Le Mans and the LMP2 championship.
The final podium position in LMP2 went to the No. 24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla, Matthieu Lahaye and Jacques Nicolet, which saw the French team go winless in the FIA WEC this year.
PHOTOS: Six Hours of Shanghai Gallery
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