TOYOTA GAZOO Racing took a hard-earned double podium finish in the 4 Hours of Shanghai as its winning run came to an end in the third round of the 2019-2020 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The World Championship leaders, competing with the maximum success handicap, faced a significant challenge from the non-hybrid LMP1 cars but minimised the damage by delivering a patient race and making up time in the pit stops.
Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, in the #8 TS050 HYBRID, took a three-point lead in the drivers’ World Championship by finishing second behind the winning Rebellion #1. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, who began the race tied on points with its sister car, earned third in the #7 TS050 HYBRID. They are now lie second in the World Championship.
“We did our absolute maximum and it was a strong team performance to get two cars on the podium,” commented Hartley. “We had some nice battles with our LMP1 rivals and even the LMP2s because lapping those guys was tricky. In the end, the Rebellion was quick and they didn’t make any mistakes so they deserved to win the race. We did everything we could to put them under pressure but it wasn’t enough.”
That result ends a seven-race winning run for the TS050 HYBRID in its farewell season and leaves TOYOTA GAZOO Racing with a 27-point advantage over Rebellion in the teams’ World Championship.
At the start, Kamui made instant progress from fourth on the grid, overtaking the Rebellion and, briefly, Ginetta #5 before the #7 stabilised in third. In contrast, Sébastien in the #8, which started fifth, dropped into the LMP2 pack but drove with patience to move into fourth.
Sébastien then closed in on third-placed Kamui and overtook on lap 12. After 45 minutes of action, both cars made their first stops and took on fuel only, with fast pit work by the mechanics getting both TS050 HYBRIDs back into the race an impressive 10secs faster than the leading Ginettas.
That allowed Sébastien to leapfrog Ginetta #5 for second place and he soon took the lead, showing better pace than his rival in their respective second stints on the same tyres. The #8 continued to lead until lap 40 when Rebellion #1, on new tyres, overtook despite a valiant defence from Sébastien.
Meanwhile, the #7 TS050 HYBRID and both Ginettas were handed drive-through penalties for overtaking Rebellion #1 before the start-line on lap one, dropping Kamui to fifth.
At the first driver changes, soon after the 90-minute mark, Brendon took over the #8 in second place, but around 30 seconds away from the leading Rebellion #1 while José was a similar distance further back in the third-placed #7.
At half distance, the positions at the front were stable as the leading cars battled severe tyre degradation and heavy traffic. Brendon handed over the second-placed #8 to Kazuki on lap 73 at the same time as Mike took the wheel of the #7 in third, and both continued pushing to be ready should the leader lose time.
But the #1 Rebellion suffered no further drama, meaning it took the chequered flag to win by 66.984secs from Kazuki in the #8, with Mike bringing the #7 home in third a further 70.783secs behind.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will fight to return to the centre of the podium in the fourth round of the season, and the only WEC race in the Middle East, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, on 14 December.
4 Hours of Shanghai results:
1st #1 Rebellion (Senna/Menezes/Nato) 125 laps
2nd #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1min 6.984secs
3rd #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1 lap
4th #5 Ginetta (King/Hanley/Orudzhev) +1 lap
5th #6 Ginetta (Robertson/Simpson/Smith) +2 laps
6th #38 JOTA (Gonzalez/Da Costa/Davidson) +4 laps
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