It was an emotional race for Toyota Racing at the second last round of the 2013 FIAWEC season- the 6 Hours of Shanghai. Toyota had maintained a lead all the way from the qualifying session and managed to lead in first and second for most part of the main 6 hour race. The No.7 Toyota TS030 hybrid of Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre had the early lead but they suffered a blown tire with only two hours left, thus prompting an extra pit stop and hence they lost the lead.
That meant that the N0.8 sister Toyota car of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin had to take the lead, meanwhile, the two Veteran Audi R18 e-trons No.1 and No.2 were closing in fast. The LMP1 category was tense during the last two hours as the positions were prone to change by any minute. Toyota suffered their last blow when the No.8 car retired with damaged suspension.
Alex Wurz, No.7 Toyota said;
The race was disappointing for us. We had the wrong compound of tyres in the last stint due to the puncture, which forced us to use a set more than originally planned, so I knew it was going to be really tough. I was hoping the track temperature would drop much faster than it did. I knew it would be a very tough run to the flag and I couldn’t keep the #1 Audi behind me. That’s racing. We are having a strong end to the season performance-wise so big thanks to the team, who keep on pushing. We have one more race to show we can win again.
Audi took the lead in the LMP1 class with the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lotterer-Tréluyer-Fässler, the sister car No. 2 finished third behind the surviving No.7 Toyota closing the podium. The No.2 Audi crew of McNish-Kristensen-Duval was able to provisionally secure the FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship with that 3rd position finish. In the LMP2 category, the G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan took its third win of the season ahead of the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan and No.35 Morgan Nissan.
The LM GTE category was the hottest as both Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche teams fought for the best finishes. In the GTE-Pro class, Aston Martin Racing finished with two cars in first and second. The No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner finished first followed closely by the sister No.99 Aston Martin of Bruno Senna, Pedro Lamy and Richie Stanaway. The No.91 Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet finished third in this class.
In the GTE-Am class, Aston Martin lost a chance of winning after the leading No.95 car was forced to retire due to an electrical fault. That gave Ferrari a good chance to steal the win with the No.81 8Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia finishing first followed by the Le Mans class-winning No.76 IMSA Matmut Porsche of Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl Vernay and Markus Palttala. The No.96 Aston Martin Vantage of Jamie Campbell-Walter, Stuart Hall and Jonathan Adam finished third in this class.
