Hartley, Bamber, Bernhard win WEC title

New Zealanders Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber and German Timo Bernard have won the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship by finishing second in Shanghai.

The #8 Toyota TS050 of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Anthony Davidson won the race by over a lap, but the #2 Porsche 919 trio have an unassailable 32-point championship lead with a total of 26 on offer in the final round in Bahrain.

A podium position for the #1 Porsche 919 of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, and Nick Tandy also locked up the manufacturers’ championship for Porsche.

Hartley, Bernhard and Bamber were already on course to seal the drivers’ crown with third place when race leader Jose Maria Lopez was involved in an incident that sent the #7 Toyota TS050 into the pits for repairs and promoted the #2 Porsche to second.

The diagnosis for Car #7 was damaged left-rear suspension.

While the incident for the Toyota Lopez shared with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway cost the Japanese marque a one-two, it did give Car #8 a clear run to the victory that had looked likely for the majority of the six-hour race.

Buemi, on new tyres, was closing down on Lopez and less than two seconds behind when the leader tagged the #91 GTE Pro class Porsche driven by Richard Lietz in Turn 3.

The Swiss had just taken second place from Nick Tandy in the #1 Porsche when race leader Lopez spun after contact with WEC debutant Nico Muller in the G-Drive LMP2 ORECA in the opening hour.

The #8 Toyota was in the ascendency for the rest of the race, though different tyre strategies meant it was behind when the sister car hit problems.

The Toyota TS050s, which incorporated new developments for this weekend, had a clear edge over the Porsches around the Shanghai International Circuit.

Both 919s were a lap down after four hours of the race.

Tandy/Jani/Lotterer had the faster of the two Porsches in China, but an engine sensor issue in the opening hour resulted in more than a minute lost.

Lotterer, however, was only 20s behind Bernhard at the finish.

Repairs to the #7 Toyota cost it seven laps and left it down in fourth at the chequered flag.

Rebellion drivers Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Julien Canal took victory in LMP2 to claim the championship lead with one race to go.

Senna had dominated the opening hour and a half of the race in the #13 ORECA-Gibson, but had to come from behind to take victory and the points lead from the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry.

The Brazilian passed Ho-Pin Tung for the lead with just under an hour to go at the end of an eventful race for the Chan/DC car the Chinese driver shared with Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent.

Tung had two incidents not of his making that resulted in spins, being tagged by Ben Hanley in the #24 Manor entry and then Muller in the G-Drive car.

Tung dropped behind Nicolas Lapierre in the Alpine Signatech ORECA and then Nelson Piquet Jr in the second Rebellion entry, fourth place leaving the long-time championship leaders four points behind Senna and his team-mates.

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell claimed GTE Pro honours after a prolonged battle with the #91 Porsche 911 RSR that Lietz shared with Frederic Makowiecki.

Priaulx was able to pass Frenchman Makowiecki for the lead in the fourth hour and then Tincknell fought a successful rearguard action against Lietz prior to his hit from Lopez.

The Porsche faded in the final laps after the contact, ending up nine seconds down at the finish.

Behind them, third place for James Caldao and Alessandro Pier Guidi was enough for Ferrari to clinch the GT manufacturers’ spoils.

Porsche looked on course for victory with the sister car driven by Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen.

They had a clear edge on both their team-mates and the rest of the field, only for engine issues to put the car out early in the third hour.

Aston Martin drivers Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana had an easy run to victory in GTE Am from early in the second hour.

Their two closest rivals, the Spirit of Race and Clearwater Ferraris, lost time in the same incident involving the second of the Chan/DC ORECAs.

Australian Nick Foster therefore took second in GTE Am class in the Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR he shared with Ben Barker and Khalid Al-Qubaisi.

The ninth and final round is the 6 Hours of Bahrain on November 16-18.

Video: Race highlights

Race results: 6 Hours of Shanghai

Pos	Car #	Car	Team	Drivers	Laps	Race time/split to lead	Class	Class pos
1	8	Toyota TS050 – Hybrid	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima	195	6:00:40.777	LMP1	1
2	2	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Porsche LMP Team	Bernhard/Bamber/Hartley	194	+1 Lap	LMP1	2
3	1	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Porsche LMP Team	Jani/Lotterer/Tandy	194	+1 Lap	LMP1	3
4	7	Toyota TS050 – Hybrid	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez	188	+7 Laps	LMP1	4
5	31	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Vaillante Rebellion	Canal/Prost/Senna	183	+12 Laps	LMP2	1
6	36	Alpine A470 – Gibson	Signatech Alpine Matmut	Lapierre/Menezes/Negrão	183	+12 Laps	LMP2	2
7	13	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Vaillante Rebellion	Beche/Heinemeier Hansson/Piquet Jr	182	+13 Laps	LMP2	3
8	38	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Tung/Jarvis/Laurent	182	+13 Laps	LMP2	4
9	25	Oreca 07 – Gibson	CEFC Manor TRS Racing	Gonzalez/Trummer/Petrov	182	+13 Laps	LMP2	5
10	28	Oreca 07 – Gibson	TDS Racing	Perrodo/Vaxiviere/Collard	182	+13 Laps	LMP2	6
11	26	Oreca 07 – Gibson	G-Drive Racing	Rusinov/Roussel/Muller	181	+14 Laps	LMP2	7
12	37	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Cheng/Brundle/Gommendy	181	+14 Laps	LMP2	8
13	24	Oreca 07 – Gibson	CEFC Manor TRS Racing	Rao/Hanley/Vergne	181	+14 Laps	LMP2	9
14	67	Ford GT	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Priaulx/Tincknell	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	1
15	91	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche GT Team	Lietz/Makowiecki	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	2
16	51	Ferrari 488 GTE	AF Corse	Calado/Pier Guidi	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	3
17	66	Ford GT	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Mücke/Pla	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	4
18	95	Aston Martin Vantage	Aston Martin Racing	Thiim/Sørensen	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	5
19	71	Ferrari 488 GTE	AF Corse	Rigon/Bird	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	6
20	97	Aston Martin Vantage	Aston Martin Racing	Turner/Adam	170	+25 Laps	LMGTE Pro	7
21	98	Aston Martin V8 Vantage	Aston Martin Racing	Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda	166	+29 Laps	LMGTE Am	1
22	86	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	Gulf Racing UK	Al Qubaisi/Barker/Foster	165	+30 Laps	LMGTE Am	2
23	77	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	Dempsey – Proton Racing	Ried/Cairoli/Dienst	164	+31 Laps	LMGTE Am	3
24	61	Ferrari 488 GTE	Clearwater Racing	Mok/Sawa/Griffin	158	+37 Laps	LMGTE Am	4
DNF	92	Porsche 911 RSR	Porsche GT Team	Christensen/Estre	65		LMGTE Pro	DNF
DNF	54	Ferrari 488 GTE	Spirit of Race	Flohr/Castellacci/Molina	37		LMGTE Am	DNF

World Endurance Drivers’ Championship

Pos	Driver	Nat	Pts
1	Brendon Hartley	NZL	190
1	Earl Bamber	NZL	190
1	Timo Bernhard	DEU	190
2	Kazuki Nakajima	JPN	158
2	Sébastien Buemi	CHE	158
3	Anthony Davidson	GBR	143
4	André Lotterer	DEU	113
4	Neel Jani	CHE	113
4	Nick Tandy	GBR	113
5	Kamui Kobayashi	JPN	91.5
5	Mike Conway	GBR	91.5
6	Ho-Pin Tung	CHN	74.5
6	Oliver Jarvis	GBR	74.5
6	Thomas Laurent	FRA	74.5
7	Jose Maria Lopez	ARG	72.5
8	Bruno Senna	BRA	66
8	Julien Canal	FRA	66
9	André Negrão	BRA	58.5
10	Gustavo Menezes	USA	58.5
11	Nicolas Prost	FRA	58
12	Nicolas Lapierre	FRA	56
13	Alex Brundle	GBR	36.5
13	David Cheng	CHN	36.5
13	Tristan Gommendy	FRA	36.5
14	Matthew Rao	GBR	34
15	Jean-Eric Vergne	FRA	32
16	Stéphane Sarrazin	FRA	26
17	Nelson Panciatici	FRA	24.5
17	Pierre Ragues	FRA	24.5
18	Jonathan Hirschi	CHE	23
18	Tor Graves	GBR	23
19	David Heinemeier Hansson	DNK	21.5
19	Mathias Beche	CHE	21.5
20	Nelson Piquet Jr	BRA	17.5
21	Roman Rusinov	RUS	17
22	Pierre Thiriet	FRA	16.5
23	Emmanuel Collard	FRA	15
23	François Perrodo	FRA	15
24	Matthieu Vaxiviere	FRA	14.5
25	Alex Lynn	GBR	14.5
26	Romain Dumas	FRA	12.5
27	Ben Hanley	GBR	11
28	Yuji Kunimoto	JPN	10
29	James Rossiter	GBR	9
30	Dominik Kraihamer	AUT	8.5
30	Oliver Webb	GBR	8.5
31	Filipe Albuquerque	PRT	8
32	Roberto Gonzalez	MEX	5
32	Simon Trummer	CHE	5
32	Vitaly Petrov	RUS	5
33	Jose Gutierrez	MEX	4
33	Memo Rojas	MEX	4
33	Ryo Hirakawa	JPN	4
34	Luis Felipe Derani	BRA	4
35	Marco Bonanomi	ITA	0.5
35	Roberto Merhi	ESP	0.5
36	Léo Roussel	FRA	0.5
36	Nico Muller	CHE	0.5

World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	Pts
1	Porsche	303
2	Toyota	249.5