180 Minutes: Puncture forces Toyota lead change in Shanghai

At the half way point of the 6 Hours of Shanghai Toyota continued with a 1-2 for the two TS030 hybrids and a one lap advantage over the two Audis. However a slow puncture for the nr8 Toyota of Stephane Sarrazin forced the Frenchman to pit, allowing the nr7 car of Alex Wurz to regain the lead. Sarrazin rejoined the track 55 seconds behind his teammate and one minute ahead of the nr2 Audi R18 of Loic Duval.

In LMP2 the nr26 G-Drive Racing Oreca Nissan continued to lead the class as it had from the start of the race, but Mike Conway was coming under pressure from the nr24 Oak Racing Morgan of Alex Brundle, who had closed the gap to around 7 seconds at the top of the hour. The nr35 Oak Morgan of Martin Plowman was nearly a minute adrift of the battle duo but well ahead of Craig Dolby in the nr25 Delta-ADR Oreca and Mark Shulzhitcskiy in the nr41 Greaves Zytek.

At the mid-race point, Aston Martin Racing is still dominant in both the LMGTE Pro and Am categories although there have been some great on-track battles which have kept the spectators at Shanghai International Circuit.

The No.97 Vantage V8 of Darren Turner has retained the lead pulled out by his team mate Stefan Mücke, apart from during the scheduled round of pit stops which temporarily shake up the leaderboard.

The British car is being pushed by the No.99 Aston Martin of Bruno Senna-Richie Stanaway-Pedro Lamy and the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese and Brazilian former F1 drivers had everyone on the edge of their seats with a fantastic on-track battle which went on corner after corner. The two traded places more than once, before the Brazilian finally forced the Ferrari into a small error and was able to draw ahead. The No.51 is currently 4th in class ahead of the two Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSRs.

In LMGTE Am, Aston Martin is also currently positioned 1-2 in the class, the Danish drivers in the No.95 Vantage V8 putting in a terrific performance to maintain the advantage shown in the first 90 minutes. Behind them is the No.96 Aston of Hall, Adam and Campbell-Walter which has overcome delays due to contact avoidance at the start and a brush with another LMGTE Am competitor and has now made its way to the front of the class. In 3rd place is Davide Rigon in the No.81 8Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia.

FIA WEC