Buemi Leads After Frantic Opening Hour in Shanghai

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

The No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi leads the 4 Hours of Shanghai at the one-hour mark following a frantic opening to the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Buemi has a narrow lead over the No. 6 Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1 of Charlie Robertson, who held command of the race from start but came under attack by Buemi as the Ginetta faded on its double-stinted tires.

The No. 5 Ginetta, in the hands of Ben Hanley, currently runs third.

The British-built prototypes dashed out into an early 1-2 lead, extending their margin to 20 seconds over the pair of Toyotas, which struggled in the opening laps around LMP2 traffic.

Norman Nato, in the pole-sitting No. 1 Rebellion R13 Gibson, dropped to sixth overall at the start, with tire pickup issues, although ended the hour in fourth.

What appeared to be an issue for Nato at the start turned into drive-through penalties handed to the pair of Ginettas and the No. 7 Toyota for jumping the start, with the penalties served just past the opening hour.

Anthony Davidson leads LMP2 after getting around the No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Will Stevens, who led the majority of the opening hour.

The No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR holds command of GTE-Pro, with the No. 90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE leads GTE-Am.

A penalty for contact between class pole-sitter Egidio Perfetti and Paul Dalla Lana at the start took the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche out of the lead and down to seventh in class.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John