Rebellion takes Shanghai victory

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s reign of dominance is over. Its seven-race winning streak, which dates back to the 6 Hours of Silverstone during the 2018/19 season, was snapped in the 4 Hours of Shanghai. Instead, it was Rebellion Racing’s day, the No. 1 R-13 Gibson of Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato and Bruno Senna taking the win after a hard-fought race in China.

The victory came after a recovery drive by the team following a messy start to the race which saw the car drop to sixth from pole. Nato took the start and struggled for tire temperature, which caused him to get swallowed up by the pack.

After that, though, the team used strategy -- taking fresh rubber early on instead of double stinting in the opening hours like its rivals -- and speed. All three drivers contributed to the gradual climb up the order and into the lead, taking a comfortable win over the handicapped Toyotas.

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“We were helped by the late full-course yellow, which meant everyone had to make a splash rather than just us,” Menezes told RACER. “But this was great, the best racing in the WEC for a long time -- it’s what the series has needed. Everyone in the team worked so hard, we had a perfect race really, and had the pace here to win.”

Behind the Rebellion, the two Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs completed the podium. The No. 8 beat the No. 7 to second place here, after the No. 7 suffered a drive-through for jumping the start.

Despite their advantage through traffic with hybrid boost, in fuel consumption and tire wear, they simply couldn't better the R-13 which had far more straight-line speed and was consistently able to generate faster lap times. The tire degradation on the Rebellion wasn’t as severe as many expected, in a race defined by tire management across the board.

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Strategy helped here for Rebellion too, it must be said, the Swiss team recovering well from Nato's struggles at the start. In the end the No. 1 crossed the line a minute ahead of the No. 8 Toyota, which had a trouble-free race and a lap ahead of the delayed No. 7 Toyota.

Opinions on the new LMP1 'success handicap' system aside, it was undeniably an entertaining and unpredictable race, featuring a level of wheel-to-wheel action that has been missing from the class since Porsche’s exit from the LMP1 ranks at the end of 2017.

Rebellion really had to push for this one and Toyota had to push too in order to stay in contention for the win. Not everyone was sold, though -- even within the same driving crews there were disagreements on how the race panned out.

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Sebastien Buemi wasn’t a fan of the advantage Rebellion was handed in this race by the new system.

“The advantage was too much,” he told RACER. “They were so fast down the straights and we were as slow as the LMP2s, sometimes slower. Maybe in Bahrain it will be a little closer because the Rebellion will suffer a penalty, but the Ginettas will still have the speed. We didn’t have the pace to win.

Hartley, Buemi’s teammate, disagrees. ”The way we generate the lap times is different; it made for a great race. It's tricky for us in the traffic, but I had fun out there. We had to push hard, which is what you want in racing.”

Interestingly, Menezes actually agreed with Buemi that Rebellion’s advantage was a little bit too much.

Fastest lap for Robertson was 1.3s faster than anyone else but an early 1-2 for Ginetta didn't last.

Off the podium were the two Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1s, finishing fourth and fifth. It was a race which showed much promise early on, but left everyone in the garage feeling disappointed. Both cars were rapid, particularly early on, when Charlie Robertson set the fastest lap while leading the race in the No. 6, ahead of Ben Hanley in the No. 5 that also got the better of the pole-sitting R-13 at the start and fended off the Toyotas. Both cars sped away but faded after the first hour, due to multiple factors.

Both cars served a drive-through, like the No. 7 Toyota, for jumping the start, and lost time a number of times the pits, the No. 6, most notably, lost a whole minute when it missed its pit box on one occasion and couldn’t get out of gear to be pushed back.

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Next pages: LMP2, GT classes, resultsIn LMP2, it was JOTA and Goodyear’s day. The British team's No. 38 ORECA delivered its first sports car win since the 2015 European Le Mans Series season. For Goodyear, this was its first ever FIA WEC class victory, as well as its maiden win in LMP2 competition.

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In the end it was a comfortable triumph for Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson, who led home a 1-2 for Goodyear and JOTA, as the Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA -- also run by JOTA -- finished second.

The win was set up by Davidson, who during his stint at the start drove to the front from fifth.

“It means a lot to win and as a new car crew it feels special to win, especially after the good race we had together in Fuji where we ended up P2 but were cruelly robbed of the position after being excluded,” Davidson said. “So to come back and win in dominant style, I’m really happy about that. It’s great for Goodyear as well and it is their first race win in LMP2, so it’s nice to be a part of that and to have engineered that -- it is an important day.

“The start of the race was really challenging against all these young kids in LMP2 fighting tooth and nail. I thought I would just back a bit at the start as we started P5 and it was interesting seeing how they raced each other and I was able to pick them off one by one as the race settled down.

"It was interesting to see the young guns in front of me, how they would drive. I slowly picked them off and managed the tires, which was key. It was a great feeling to manage this race on my own without the input of engineers.”

The best of the Michelin runners was the United Autosports 07 Gibson, which would have challenged for the victory here had it not hit trouble in the opening laps. Debris got stuck in the car's air intake, costing the team straight-line speed in the opening laps and forcing a pit stop for a check-up which dropped Filipe Albuquerque to the back of the class. Still, a podium finish for the British team was a strong result after a well-executed recovery drive.

There were two other contenders here that will also go away disappointed. The Cool Racing ORECA, which started from pole position, became the only retirement after just 30 laps, a full electrical telemetry failure to blame.

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Racing Team Nederland, too, left the circuit without a strong result to follow up its breakthrough win in Fuji. The team was forced to start from the back of the grid after failing to set a time in qualifying. It was then was handed a penalty for a collision after Giedo van der Garde tagged the Red River Sport Ferrari into a spin at the final corner after he’d pulled RTN back into contention for a podium.

The ORECA came home fifth, behind the fourth-placed Alpine and just ahead of the High Class Racing ORECA, which again was strong during newly-crowned Super GT champion Kenta Yamashita's time in the car. After the race, Yamashita was full of positivity, despite the team not finishing as high as it believed it could have.

“I’m really enjoying driving the ORECA, it was really hard here to manage tires,” he told RACER. "My stint was strong though -- my lap average put me second in the driver rankings,” he noted.

UPDATE: Post-race penalty changes GTE Pro results

In GTE Pro, AF Corse scored Ferrari's first victory at Shanghai. The No. 51 488 GTE EVO of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado were the victors, taking their first win of the season, and the first win for the team in this campaign.

AF Corse and Ferrari join the winners' party.

Both drivers stressed just how conservatively they had to drive, particularly towards the end. Their competitiveness came as a surprise, as did the victory.

“For all the classes I think tires were the biggest issue -- the drop-off from the first lap to the end of the stint is around four seconds, so you can imagine that the management is huge,” he explained.

“You have to be patient but it’s difficult, because all you want to do is race and overtake but you have to back off and that is the quickest way to do the stint.

“It is the first win for Ferrari at Shanghai and honestly we didn’t expect it. My first two stints were pretty good and obviously we took from the misfortune of the Aston Martin, but that is motorsport and it has happened to us before. We have had a tricky start to the year and it is nice to be back on the podium since Le Mans and it feels great.”

The "misfortune" he referred to hit Aston Martin Racing's No. 95 Vantage AMR of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. The pair had a standout performance and looked on course for the win before a puncture in the third hour for Thiim in the braking zone for the Turn 14 hairpin. The resulting extra pit stop dropped the Dane to last in the class. He and Sorensen would go on to finish fifth.

Behind the No. 51 Ferrari, the No. 92 Porsche took second, and finished just a few seconds behind after a spirited drive late in the race from Kevin Estre to track down Pier Guidi. But the Frenchman was unable to reel him in before the finish and had to settle for a third consecutive second-place finish to start the season.

The No. 92 would almost certainly have won this one, had the team not been handed a penalty. A botched pit stop and an unsafe release cost the crew dear, the team handed a 10-second time penalty to a later stop.

The sister No. 91 Porsche never featured in the race for the win, but looked on for a podium throughout took third, and crossed the line ahead of the best-placed Aston Martin, the No. 97.

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In GTE Am, TF Sport made it two wins in a row. The British team’s driver crew of Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Jonny Adam enjoyed a clean, rapid run in a race which saw many of the contenders in the class hit trouble at various points.

“It was all down to Salih’s stint today,” Adam explained. “He drove so well over the first two stints, which gave us a good position to manage the gap and play the strategy out as the race unfolded. Tire management is crucial around here -- there was so much pick-up towards the end of the race, it was just about staying on the line.

“For us, back-to-back victories and leading the championship now. Unfortunately, we have a little bit more success ballast going into Bahrain, so that might take its toll there, but really happy. We didn’t expect the win, a podium was potentially on the cards, but it is great to get back to back wins

The No. 57 Project 1 Porsche of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and WEC newcomer Larry ten Voorde put to bed the team’s tough start to the season with a second-place finish. Texas native Keating put together a head-turning drive in the opening hour, climbing to second, before handing over the car to his teammates who finished the job and claimed silverware.

Remarkably, the No. 98 Aston Martin finished third after early drama. The sister No. 56 pole-sitting Porsche of Egidio Perfetti hit Paul Dalla Lana on the opening lap, sending the Canadian to the back of the field. For the third race in a row Dalla Lana, Ross Gunn and Darren Turner had the pace to win but had their race compromised by other cars.

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The comeback drive -- all the way to the lead at one point -- was superb, a podium finish well earned after a strong run from all three drivers, who were mistake free and quick after the early contact.

Behind them in the running order was the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, Manu Collard, Francois Perrodo and Nicklas Nielsen who had a quiet outing, their 488 GTE lacking outright pace due to the amount of ballast the team had to carry for leading the championship.

The No. 56 Project 1 Porsche finished fifth, its penalty for the Lap 1 contact and a spin later in the race prevented it from a podium finish late in the race.

Next up on the FIA WEC calendar is the 8 Hours of Bahrain on December 14.

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