The #2 Porsche 919 of Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, and Brendon Hartley
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
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