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Global
Practice report

Shanghai WEC: Toyota back on top in final practice

Toyota returned to the top of the timesheets in final practice for this weekend's Shanghai FIA World Endurance Championship round, beating the best of the privateer LMP1s by one second.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Photo by: Adrenal Media

After the Japanese manufacturer was outpaced in both Friday's sessions, Kamui Kobayashi set the quickest time of the weekend so far in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, a 1m47.184s, to outpace the best of the Team LNT Ginettas by 1.009s.

Kobayashi's time came right at the start of the 60-minute session in a qualifying simulation.

SMP Racing-backed Egor Orudzhev set the best time in the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 of 1m48.193s, fractionally slower than Charlie Robertson's session-topping FP2 effort.

The sister #6 car of Mike Simpson was third-fastest on a 1m48.680s, while the solo Rebellion R-13 was fourth-fastest on a 1m49.450s set by Gustavo Menezes.

Toyota's #8 car was slowest of the LMP1s and down in 10th place overall behind the bulk of the LMP2 field, 3.293s off the pace in the hands of Brendon Hartley.

Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries set the pace in LMP2 in the Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07, his time of 1m49.637s shading Will Stevens' best effort in the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca by a little over a tenth.

Antonio Felix da Costa made it two JOTA Sport-run cars in the top three in the Goodyear-liveried #38 Oreca, a further tenth back.

Porsche led the way in GTE Pro thanks to Michael Christensen's early effort of 1m58.786s at the wheel of the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

That was nearly a full second up on James Calado's best time in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, while Marco Sorensen made it three different manufacturers in the top three in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

GTE Am was also topped by Porsche, with Matteo Cairoli posting a 2m00.109s in the #56 Team Project 1 car.

The session was red-flagged with three minutes left on the clock after Francesco Castellacci's AF Corse Ferrari rear-ended Bruno Senna in the Rebellion at the Turn 14 hairpin, leaving debris on the track.

Qualifying and the full 4 Hours of Shanghai will be shown live on Motorsport.tv. Check times here.

Session results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 28 1'47.184  
2 5 United Kingdom Jordan King
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 27 1'48.193 1.009
3 6 United Kingdom Charles Robertson
United Kingdom Michael Simpson
United Kingdom Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 24 1'48.680 1.496
4 1 Brazil Bruno Senna
United States Gustavo Menezes
France Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 23 1'49.450 2.266
5 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 26 1'49.637 2.453
6 37 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 27 1'49.748 2.564
7 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 25 1'49.879 2.695
8 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 23 1'49.890 2.706
9 36 France Thomas Laurent
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 21 1'50.465 3.281
10 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 25 1'50.477 3.293
11 42 France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 24 1'51.058 3.874
12 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 23 1'51.256 4.072
13 33 United States Mark Patterson
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 26 1'52.683 5.499
14 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 20 1'58.786 11.602
15 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 24 1'59.611 12.427
16 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 22 1'59.764 12.580
17 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 20 1'59.832 12.648
18 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 21 1'59.883 12.699
19 71 Italy Davide Rigon
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 26 1'59.952 12.768
20 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 23 2'00.109 12.925
21 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 22 2'00.579 13.395
22 88 Italy Angelo Negro
New Zealand Will Bamber
Austria Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 23 2'00.606 13.422
23 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 22 2'00.610 13.426
24 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 25 2'00.772 13.588
25 83 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 24 2'01.093 13.909
26 78 Monaco Philippe Prette
Monaco Louis Prette
France Vincent Abril
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 25 2'01.126 13.942
27 57 United States Ben Keating
Larry ten
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 25 2'01.222 14.038
28 62 United Kingdom Bonamy Grimes
United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 24 2'01.346 14.162
29 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 24 2'01.449 14.265
30 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 25 2'01.506 14.322
31 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Japan Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 26 2'02.049 14.865

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