Audi has pole here at the Shanghai International Circuit. Porsche and Audi are on different tires for the 6 Hours of Shanghai, and the race, has started. The clock has begun, on a real tire shredder of a circuit here at Shanghai. It's damp. It's not totally wet, but, it's not totally dry. Audi saved a set of slick tires during qualifying. You don't get free tires. You get free choice of tires. You have to start the race on the same type of tire you qualify on.
This track eats tires. We have started the race. The clock is running. This is the penultimate race for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship. We have now been racing, for a good seventeen minutes, folks. Porsche, Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota, is the top five, currently. Brendon Hartley, Andre Lotterer, Oliver Jarvis, Anthony Davidson, and Mike Conway, are the starting drivers, in each car. We are prepping for a full on green flag.
Cars have been changing position behind the safety car. The #77 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 RSR spun off the road. There is some slight banking on this track. Here at Shanghai, turn 13 is the slowest corner in all of the World Endurance Championship. 56 kilometers per hour, or 35 miles an hour. Now, we are racing! Marc Lieb takes the lead and the Audi's are under pressure from Toyota. Anthony Davidson taps Oliver Jarvis. Can Jarvis pass Davidson back? No. Three wide! Oh my! Someone has spun off! It's the #18 Porsche 919 that is stranded!
Wow! Don't move until everyone is through! Nick Tandy is also off the road in the #47 KCMG LMP2 car! Cars are off the road already. The Porsche will rejoin the race. Will their be consequences for that contact? Brendon Hartley leads Andre Lotterer right now. The two championship combatants lead each other (insofar as the driver's championship). With KCMG, they are starting to lose ground in the driver's championship standings, as there are waving yellow flags in one corner.
Sam Bird in one of the G Drive cars, leads LMP2. Andre Lotterer was trying to stay out of the way of one of the Porsche's. Marc Lieb says on the radio, "the Audi hit me, even though I gave him room." The #18 was trying to help #17 get to the lead. Ooh. Nick Tandy loses it into the gravel trap, under braking, by himself. These blokes are on intermediate tires. The safety car is on track now. Wow. This race is starting, with major action, everyone. Marc Lieb let his team mate through, and the Audi followed him through.
Alex Brundle makes a pass, and Pepe Derani is also moving up in LMP2. Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet are third and fourth in LM GTE Pro at the moment. Ferrari's are sharing special development tires with the Porsche's in the GTE classes. They are development tires being made by Michelin. Larbre Competition's Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R- driven by Paolo Ruberti, leads LM GTE Am. Davide Rigon in the Ferrari is trying to move up, working on a pass on Alex MacDowall in the #99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. This is the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, I think.
#92 now leads LM GTE Pro. The GT cars on Michelin's in the wet, can pass LMP2 cars very well. The Dunlop full wets are not being used in the LMP2 class. They are not durable enough on a dry track. Toni Vilander is in the leading #51 AF Corse Ferrari, and he has passed the #42 Strakka Racing Gibson Nissan of Danny Watts, as a car has spun on the back straight. Turn 16, the hairpin, is where this spin happened. The #30 ESM prototype also went off the road, briefly.
Patrick Long takes the LM GTE Am lead in car #77. Sam Bird and Alex Brundle are 1-2 in LMP2, about a second apart. Right now in LMP1, there's three seconds, between the top three, in the overall in LMP1. Hartley, Lotterer, Jarvis. Ooh. A touch between Pedro Lamy and Stuart Hall in the Aston Martin's. Christian Ried, actually, in one of the Porsche's tapped him. A bit of argy bargy for sure. Calm down, chaps. Toni Vilander catches up with the Audi, but allows Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche to pass! Yikes!
Nick Tandy has to try and pass Sam Bird back in LMP2. There are battles all over this race track, folks. There is a battle for third in LM GTE Pro between Davide Rigon and Frederic Makowiecki. It's a doppleganger for the other GTE Pro clash. Ooh. Someone went off into the gravel, slightly. It's starting to dry just a bit. The lap times are in the 1:55-1:56 range right now. A gravel trap that used to be by pit lane, has been removed. Keep at least two wheels inside the white line, down towards the 60 kilometer speed limit line, entering the pits.
The race is working into a rhythm. Marc Lieb is ahead of Mike Conway in the back half of the overall top five in LMP1. LMP2 cars are starting to make scheduled pit stops it appears. The gap is staying put, as Andre Lotterer is keeping Brendon Hartley honest. 21 laps have been run, and we've got sub two minute lap times at the moment. Hartley is fastest at 1:57.714 as Lotterer runs a 1:58.177.
Marc Lieb has moved around Mike Conway into the top six. In pit lane now, are both the Prototype and GT Porsche's. Porsche's manufacturer's cup chances in LM GTE Pro, could be hampered by both Aston Martin and Ferrari. The rain has not quit. We watch Ryan Dalziel pass a competitor. He has opened a gap immediately, and Brendon Hartley could pit, in another four or five laps. We see Sam Bird, twelve seconds up on team mate Pepe Derani, in LMP2. It is fair to say that the GTE Pro tires are starting to get worn down.
Dropping down a huge drop, that is a couple storis down. Christian Ried battles Emmanuel Collard in LM GTE Am. The #98 Aston Martin is in the lane. Mike Conway has run fastest lap for his car with a 1:59.8 on worn, wet tires.
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