Good morning from a very overcast and damp Shanghai International Circuit. While the air temperature is a clement 20oC, humidity is at 88% and the moisture in the air meant a wet track in places during the third and final free practice session for the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
The tricky track conditions didn’t prevent Alex Wurz in the No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid from lowering the bar again in terms of pace, his lap of 1:48.949 being the fastest recorded yet for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s final round. The Austrian reported to his team that conditions were improving towards the end of hour-long practice session. In Toyota’s wake were the two Audi R18 e-tron quattros of Allan McNish, with a fastest lap of 1:50.597, and André Lotterer on a 1:51.917 who both completed a qualifying simulation lap on new tyres just before the chequered flag was shown.
Strakka Racing, as many other competitors up and down the pit lane, completed very few laps but went out in the final minutes and was fastest of the LMP1 Privateer teams. British driver Danny Watts headed the No.15 LMP1 OAK Racing Pescarolo Honda and Rebellion Racing’s No.13 Lola-Toyota entry in this category, his time of 1:53.476 being almost two seconds ahead of Takuma Sato’s 1:55.740. Times were not necessarily representative, however, because of the change in track conditions during the session and Sato enjoyed a considerable time at the very top of the classification until the factory teams got down to business.
In LMP2 Olivier Pla in the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan set the pace with a best time of 1:56.295, seven tenths of a second ahead of Stéphane Sarrazin’s No.44 Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX 03b. Argentinian team Pecom Racing were a second further behind in third place.
The LMGTE Pro class-winning Ferrari 458 Italias of Amato Ferrari’s AF Corse team completed the most laps compared to their rivals from Aston Martin Racing and Porsche, but it was Richard Lietz who ended up at the top of the time sheets in the No.77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 911 RSR. His time of 2:06.332 was five tenths of a second faster than Darren Turner in the No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 and two seconds ahead of the No.71 Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini.
The German squad also prevailed in the LMGTE Am class, the Christian Ried-Paolo Ruberti-Gianluca Roda team setting the mark at 2:10.540. An improvement by the No.55 JWA-Avila team, which includes young British driver Matt Bell in the line-up for this weekend, put them second in the classification, followed by the No.50 Larbre Compétition Corvette. None of the competitors in this class which features ‘gentlemen’ drivers completed many laps to avoid any risk of damage to their cars on the slippery track before qualifying this afternoon.
The 28 cars will be back on track this afternoon for the 20-minute qualifying sessions. First up will be LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am at 1325 hours, followed by the LMP1 and LMP2 classes at 1355 hours.
Fiona Miller
Photo: SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT (SHANGHAI, CHINA), 6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI, SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER, FREE PRACTICE 3.
