Rain fails to dampen Toyota’s spirits after Shanghai 6 Hours 1-2
Toyota recorded a fourth victory of the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship super season with a one-two finish in a stopstart wet Shanghai 6 Hours race last weekend.
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.
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.
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.
Aston Martin secured its first victory in the GTE Pro class with its new Vantage GTE driven by Danish duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, finishing seventh overall and ahead of the Lmp2-winning #38 ORECA.
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.