SHANGHAI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Gazoo Racing took their third 1-2 finish of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship in the 6 Hours of Shanghai here on Sunday, in a race that was halted twice due to heavy rain.
The race began at 11am local time under the safety car, but after several cars spun in the treacherous conditions, the decision was made to red flag the race twice over the opening two hours, resulting in some fairly disjointed racing in the opening stages.
However, once the rain eased later in the day, the two Toyotas used their power and grip advantage to pull away from the rest of the field, with the #7 entry of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Jose Maria Lopez shading the #8 car driven by Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.
Third place went to the #11 SMP Racing entry of Jenson Button, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov, despite suffering a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
In the second-tier LMP2 category, it was glory for Chinese outfit Jackie Chan DC Racing, as their #38 car driven by Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi took the spoils in the team's home race.
Elsewhere, the #95 Aston Martin of Danish duo Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim won the GTE Pro category, notably finishing 7th overall ahead of the leading LMP2 car, while the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Christian Ried, Julian Andlauer and Matt Campbell came home first among the GTE Am entries.
