Just over an hour into the penultimate race of FIA WEC 2017. Toyota must win this race to keep the championships alive in driver's and manufacturer's in LMP1. Toyota #7 has been very fast. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez have had the speed all year. Pit stop time for Aston Martin. Some drivers want information. Some drivers want to be left alone to drive the race car, a la Kimi Raikkonen. Work through the information. Both Ford GT's from Chip Ganassi Team UK are in the lane. Stefan Mucke takes over the #66 and Harry Tincknell should take over the #67. These cars (the GTE machines), have huge rear diffusers on them. Darren Turner in the #97 Aston Martin is the only driver yet to pit in LM GTE Pro as we watch the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR.
GTE cars should make five pit stops in this race. Paul Dalla Lana leads in LM GTE Am. Aston Martin will be back in LM GTE. Pedro Lamy has taken four consecutive class poles in Shanghai, and six of eight this year so far. Wow. Harry Tincknell did get into the #67 Ford. #97 is in the lane. No tire warming blankets allowed in the lane, but, the teams can use ovens behind the garage. The new Aston Martin will be debuted for 2018. It may be another Vantage instead of the new, impressive Valkyrie hypercar designed in part by Adrian Newey.
Mathias Beche looks on. Beche had the argy bargy, the contretemps with Jean Eric Vergne last time out in the wet at Fuji. Vergne and the car were disqualified from the Fuji event. The decreasing radius corner here at Shanghai requires a fine balance. We are now an hour and 15 minuts into this race. The LMP2 cars will be nxt to pit in oh, 15 minutes. As things stand, the LMP2 championship will not be clinched today in this race. There's a long, long way to go yet. Nelson Piquet Jr. is under attack from Nico Mueller. Mueller is used to the DTM sprint races, and here he is on a double stint in his FIA WEC debut. Wowzers. Loic Duval has gone to DTM and struggled after succeeding in prototype competition. Tire degradation is starting to happen. These tires are getting shredded, fast.
Slow down, or you will fly off the road. There's loads of clag around this place. The #24 car of Matt Rao is in the lane as we have a coming together between the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry and the #61 Ckearwater Racubg Ferraru, Check that. It was the #54 Ferrari that was wide, and way off the road. Yikes! Nelson Piquet Jr. leads Nico Mueller. Mueller wanted to go for it, but he couldn't. He must be thoroughly enjoying himself, with a new toy to play with (i.e. a new race car). Nick Tandy is losing time hand over fist after his tech problem. Oh! The Ferrari's right side door came completely off, with Thomas Flohr at the wheel of it. Flohr must be floored by losing his door!
OK. That was weird. But, Alex Brundle will now take over the #37 entry. Flohr made a mistake, #61 of Weng Sun Mok of Malaysia tried to go into the spot, and the #37 was an innocent bystander. Sebastien Buemi is still leading his team mate Kamui Kobayashi by 12 seconds. Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy in the two Porsche's still lead. We have not seen Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre. They are still leading in LM GTE Pro.
Could Porsche break through to win today? "Mad Mike" ran very well when we saw him competing in IMSA. What tire compound do you use? Porsche has applied to try and get an extra set of tires. The marshals say, "no, you can't have any more tires." Julien Canal leads in LMP2, currently. Shangahi International Circuit was built in 18 months on 500 acres of swampland. The #77 LM GTE Am car of Marvin Dienst has to watch out for the LMP2 battle. If you push the tires too hard at the beginning of your stint, there will be nothing left. It's cloudy. No rain. Good weather, but still very hot in the cockpit.
Kamui Kobayashi is about six seconds behind Sebastien Buemi, now that Kobayashi is in the #7 car. Porsche #2 could still clinch the driver's championship here today. These LMP1 hybrid cars with their lithium ion batteries, are complex, and expensive. Toyota may be back next year. The FIA WEC is also planning their "super season". A year and a half of racing, in one single season. We are almost two hours into the race. We'll have to take a break now, and get back to you, in a few minutes as this race continues.
We'll get back to you, soon.
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