The 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship rolls into China this weekend, with the teams taking on the Hermann Tilke-designed Shanghai International Circuit in Jiading, Shanghai.
Going into the race Toyota HYBRID Racing duo Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi lead the LMP Drivers’ Championship on 122 points after taking three wins out of a possible five so far this season, whilst AF Corse pairing Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander lead the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, with the Italian-Finnish line up also claiming three wins in five, with one of those being the Le Mans 24 Hours.
However, neither pairing have ever won in Shanghai, with Toyota taking the first WEC victory at Shanghai with Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre followed a year later by the Audi trio of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler. In GTE the first race at SIC was won by Aston Martin duo Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner, with the second race again won by the German/English line up.
Shanghai International Circuit – The Lap
- The current lap record is held by 2013 Champion Alan McNish, with the Scotsman guiding his Audi R18 e-tron Quattro to a time of 1:47.442 with an average speed of 182.6 kph.
- In LMP2 the lap record is 1:55.109, set last year by John Martin at an average speed of 170.5kph in his Oreca 03-Nissan.
- The fastest GTE lap is a 2:04.099, with the time being set by Bruno Senna in his Aston Martin Vantage.
- That lap was 2 seconds faster than the fastest GTE Am lap of a 2:04.682, a time set by Paulo Ruberti in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
Shanghai International Circuit – The Race
- The 2012 race was completed in 191 laps, but in 2013 the distance was a lap less with only 190 laps being completed.
- In 2013 G-Drive Racing won the race in LMP2, with the team this season aiming to repeat their victory, this time using their new Ligier JSP2 – Nissan.
- Also taking victory last year was 8Star Motorsports, although this season none of the winning drivers will return to the winning Ferrari 458 Italia, with Gianluca Roda, lap record holder Ruberti and Matteo Cressoni set to drive for the Enzo Potolicchio-owned squad in 2014.
- The 2014 Race is due to start at 0300 UK time.
