The penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the 6 Hours of Shanghai, heralded the tenth Aston Martin/ Dunlop victory, with the #98 LM GTE Am car taking its third win and seventh podium finish of the season. The tally for the partnership so far stands at 10 wins, 21 podium finishes and 12 pole positions including the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours victory. It was an all-Dunlop LM GTE Am podium, with the #98 Vantage finishing ahead of the Gulf Racing and Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsches. It is the second time that the podium has featured only iconic yellow cap following the 1-2-3 at the Mexican round last month.
The race was incident-filled, particularly for the LMP2 class, which saw the #31 Vaillante Rebellion take the team’s third win of the season to top the championship standings with just one race remaining. The battle for the top step was with the previous table leaders Jackie Chan DC Racing, but the #31 Oreca took the lead for the final time on the 154th lap of 183, the former dropping to fourth by the time the flag dropped. The two are now the front-runners for the title, with the Signatech Alpine Matmut team still holding a mathematical chance, who finished today’s race in second. The sister Vaillante Rebellion #13 car completed the LMP2 podium.
Paul Bryant, Event Leader, Dunlop Motorsport
“We’re proud of the results we’ve achieved with Aston Martin in only our second year back in WEC GT racing. To have also now taken two 1-2-3 results also shows that we have made progress. To have two Dunlop-shod teams as front-runners in an open tyre competition class title battle going into the final round is great. It’s also good to have a similar battle in the LMP2 class where all the teams have chosen Dunlop tyres for this season.”
Teams now head to the Middle East for the final round of the championship, the 6 Hours of Bahrain, on 18th November.
6 Hours of Bahrain (LMP2: medium & medium-plus options)
Bahrain International Circuit
Very abrasive given its location on desert sands
Temperatures expected to be high
Longitudinal loading makes Bahrain unusual putting more stress through the tyres under braking and traction
Aston Martin’s #95 took its fifth win of the year to claim the GTE Pro title last year in the Bahrain race. This will be the first return visit to Bahrain on Dunlop tyres since the first test last November for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche.
