FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Shanghai - Wrapping That One Up - LMP1

A third race win in the debut (half) season for Toyota Racing and their TS030 marks out their territory for the 2013 season to come.

Audi will be content (for now) with their World Manufacturers Championship, another Le Mans 24 Hours win (and the first for a hybrid with the R18 Etron Quattro) and the World Endurance Drivers Championship for the #1 crew of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer, the trio coming home with a healthy margin over team mates Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen who once again had the (distant) consolation prize of the Michelin Green X Challenge.

Heartbreak for the #12 crew in the final minutes as the #12 Rebellion Lola Toyota ground to a halt with a broken gearbox whilst leading the LMP1 Privateers class, a result which would have been enough to secure 3rd place in the Drivers Championship for Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani.

Rebellion though will still be happy with the win for their other crew, the #13 equipe of Harold Primat, Andrea Belicchi and Cong Fu Cheng, another win in a season that has seen the Swiss flagged and funded but British based team do all it was able to in securing both the LMP1 Privateers title and the overall win at Petit Le Mans – They’ve raised the privateer bar a notch or two in doing so.  It was a shame that a communication issue prevented Bart Hayden from joi9ning his #13 crew on the podium, few deserve to celebrate more than he does.

JRM started and finished their year on a high with a great ruin at Sebring on their LMP1 debut and a pair of second positions in the final two races of the season.  They will rightly see that as progress along a step learning curve.

Strakka Racing meanwhile completed their season with another class podium, following on from a string of strong results.  They should be proud of their form with an essentially Pro-Am line up against theoretically stronger opposition.  Without contact from the #1 Audi it could have been one step higher this time too, but then the JRM boys could say the same too, courtesy of another incident. Strakka though have the further contentment of beating their HPD mounted rivals to second in the Championship

Oak Racing meanwhile had a tough race, struggled to stay with the squabbling pack ahead and lost a lot of time with a failed brake component – They at least overhauled the now dormant Pescarolo team in the final standings.

Here's hoping that they decide to push the button to continue in LMP1 through into 2013.