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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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