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Race report

Shanghai WEC: Rebellion beats the Toyotas to win

Rebellion Racing scored its first outright FIA World Endurance Championship on-the-road race win after overcoming the Toyotas to score victory at Shanghai.

Watch: FIA WEC: 4 Hours of Shanghai - Rebellion Racing celebrates victory

The #1 Rebellion crew of Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato seized the opportunity presented to them by the LMP1 success handicap system to beat the best of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids by more than a minute over the course of the four-hour race.

It marks the Swiss outfit's second win since it returned to LMP1, after its inherited win at Silverstone last year, and Toyota's first defeat on merit since the 2017 Austin race.

Rebellion's win came despite a sluggish start from pole, as Nato dropped to the back of the LMP1 field at the start after losing out to both Team LNT Ginettas and the #7 Toyota on the run to Turn 1 and then fell behind the #8 car and several LMP2 runners after that.

Menezes was still fifth after he took over from Nato for the #1 car's second stint, but made speedy progress up the field, his path to the front eased when the two Ginettas and the #7 Toyota were given drive-through penalties for passing Nato before the start.

Now up to second, Menezes passed Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota early in the second hour and from there was able to build an advantage of more than 30s before Senna took over not long after half-distance.

A full-course yellow with just over an hour to run - triggered by the #95 Aston Martin blowing a tyre - made the run to the flag much more comfortable for Rebellion, as it forced both Toyotas into making a splash for fuel towards the end.

Rebellion likewise had to pit with 20 minutes to go but Senna had brought up the car's advantage up almost a minute and resumed ahead of the #8 Toyota, Nakajima bringing the car he shares with Buemi and Brendon Hartley 1m06s down.

The #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez was a distant third, dropping off the lead lap with six minutes to go.

Both Ginetta G60-LT-P1s made it to the finish, with the #5 car of Egor Orudzhev, Ben Hanley and team newcomer Jordan King taking fourth place, also a lap down.

The sister #6 car driven by Guy Smith, Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson lost a minute when Robertson overshot his pit box and ended up two laps down in fifth.

LMP2: JOTA takes dominant victory

JOTA Sport took a convincing first victory for Goodyear tyres in the WEC with the #38 Oreca 07 shared by Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez.

The sister Jackie Chan DC Racing-branded Oreca had made the early running, as Will Stevens sprinted to an early lead before losing pace dramatically in his second stint.

That allowed Davidson to move into a lead the #38 car would never lose, while the #37 crew had to turn its attention to fending off a resurgent United Autosports car for second.

In the end, Stevens, Ho-Pin Tung and Gabriel Aubry just held on ahead of United's Michelin-shod Oreca driven by Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta, who were forced on to an alternate strategy early on when debris got into their car's airbox.

Fuji winners Racing Team Nederland could only manage fifth after starting from the back of the field - the result of Frits van Eerd not setting a time in qualifying - and picking up a drive-through penalty for Giedo van der Garde hitting the #62 Red River Sport Ferrari.

GTE: Ferrari holds off Porsche for win

Ferrari took its first win of the season in GTE Pro as Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado resisted a late challenge from Porsche.

Aston Martin had controlled much of the race with the #95 Vantage GTE of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen until the car's puncture, which gifted the #51 AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE a comfortable lead over the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Kevin Estre was able to reduce what had been a 15s deficit to 6.7s by the chequered flag, after he and Michael Christensen lost time due to a penalty for an unsafe release.

The second Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz completed the podium in third ahead of the best of the Astons, the #97 car of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin, while the #95 eventually finished fifth.

In GTE Am, TF Sport took its second win in a row as Charlie Eastwood, Jonathan Adam and Salih Yoluc gained an advantage by pitting under the FCY.

The #90 car had been locked in battle with the works Aston Martin for much of the race, but the #98 crew lost out when Darren Turner handed over to Ross Gunn under green.

Turner, Gunn and Paul Dalla Lana - who had dropped to last after contact with Egidio Perfetti's Porsche - had to be content with third at the finish behind the #57 Project 1 Porsche of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and WEC debutant Larry ten Voorde.

Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli, Davide Heinemeier Hansson had to be content with a lapped fifth after early leader Perfetti was penalised for the incident with Dalla Lana.

Race results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Gap
1 1 Brazil Bruno Senna
United States Gustavo Menezes
France Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 125
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 125 1'06.984
3 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 124 1 Lap
4 5 United Kingdom Jordan King
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 124 1 Lap
5 6 United Kingdom Charles Robertson
United Kingdom Michael Simpson
United Kingdom Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 123 2 Laps
6 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 121 4 Laps
7 37 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 121 4 Laps
8 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 121 4 Laps
9 36 France Thomas Laurent
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 120 5 Laps
10 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 120 5 Laps
11 33 United States Mark Patterson
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 120 5 Laps
12 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 119 6 Laps
13 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
14 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
15 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
16 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
17 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
18 71 Italy Davide Rigon
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 115 10 Laps
19 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 113 12 Laps
20 57 United States Ben Keating
Netherlands Larry ten Voorde
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 113 12 Laps
21 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 113 12 Laps
22 83 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 113 12 Laps
23 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
24 88 Italy Angelo Negro
New Zealand Will Bamber
Austria Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
25 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Japan Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
26 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
27 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
28 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
29 62 United Kingdom Bonamy Grimes
United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 112 13 Laps
30 78 Monaco Philippe Prette
Monaco Louis Prette
France Vincent Abril
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 107 18 Laps
42 France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 30 95 Laps

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