Shanghai WEC: Toyota wins as Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler seal crown
Audi drivers Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler became the first winners of the new-look FIA World Endurance Championship on a day that Toyota took a dominant victory in China
Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler claimed the title with a conservative run to third place aboard their Audi R18 e-tron quattro at the Shanghai International Circuit.
That gave them more than enough points to seal the world championship ahead of team-mates Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, who finished second in the WEC season finale.
Benoit Treluyer said: "This is just best thing that could happen to us. To get a world championship title for a driver makes us so happy and is a great satisfaction, and we have to say thank you to Audi."
Toyota drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Alex Wurz were in control of the race from the beginning. They needed a cushion of approximately 40 seconds to be able to make an extra splash-and-dash pitstop late in the race, but had already built up a lead in excess of that before the end of the second hour.
Lapierre said: "It was easier but not easy. We were very careful in traffic and always left a margin. We did definitely dominate this weekend."
LMP1 privateer honours went to the Rebellion Racing squad.
Andrea Belicchi, Harold Primat and Congfu Cheng took fourth place overall in their Lola-Toyota B12/60 when the sister car shared by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost, which had been in control of the unofficial class since the opening hour, stopped with gearbox problems with seven minutes to go.
Maximum WEC points in LMP2 were taken by the ADR-Delta team for a fourth time this season, which gave the British squad second place in the class teams' championship.
Team regulars John Martin and Tor Graves and newcomer Mathias Beche ended up claiming victory by just over half a minute from the Starworks HPD ARX-03b shared by Stephane Sarrazin, Enzo Potolicchio and Ryan Dalziel.
Aston Martin Racing finally claimed a GTE Pro victory at the final time of asking. The Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner took the class lead in the first hour and controlled the division thereafter.
Larbre Competition sealed the GTE Am team's title with a third win of the season for Pedro Lamy, Julien Canal and Patrick Bornhauser aboard the best of its Chevrolet Corvette C6.Rs.
Results - 191 laps: Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. P1 Wurz/Lapierre Toyota 6h01m29.292s 2. P1 Kristensen/McNish Audi + 58.570s 3. P1 Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer Audi + 1m42.814s 4. P1 Belicchi/Primat/Cheng Rebellion Lola-Toyota + 6 laps 5. P1 Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck JRM HPD + 6 laps 6. P1 Leventis/Watts/Kane Strakka HPD + 9 laps 7. P2 Martin/Graves/Beche ADR-Delta ORECA-Nissan + 11 laps 8. P2 Potolicchio/Dalziel/Sarrazin Starworks HPD + 11 laps 9. P2 Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla OAK Morgan-Nissan + 12 laps 10. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan + 12 laps 11. P2 Mailleux/Lombard/Tresson Signatech ORECA-Nissan + 13 laps 12. P2 Holzer/Schultis Lotus Lola-Lotus + 14 laps 13. P2 Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov Signatech ORECA-Nissan + 14 laps 14. P1 Baguette/Kraihamer/Sato OAK Pescarolo-Honda + 17 laps 15. P2 Zugel/Gonzalez/Julian Greaves Zytek-Nissan + 20 laps 16. GTE P Mucke/Turner Aston Martin + 22 laps 17. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Felbermayr Porsche + 22 laps 18. GTE P Bertolini/Beretta AF Ferrari + 23 laps 19. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy Larbre Corvette + 25 laps 20. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Felbermayr Porsche + 26 laps 21. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo Krohn Ferrari + 27 laps 22. GTE A Kauffman/Aguas/Waltrip AF Ferrari + 27 laps 23. GTE A Belloc/Bourret/Gibon Larbre Corvette + 28 laps 24. GTE A Camathias/Daniels/Bell JWA Porsche + 39 laps Retirements: P1 Prost/Jani Rebellion Lola-Toyota 180 laps GTE P Fisichella/Bruni AF Ferrari 144 laps P2 Giroix/Ihara/Deletraz Gulf Lola-Nissan 93 laps P2 Charouz/Rossiter/Weeda Lotus Lola-Lotus 78 laps
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