Dunlop took another clean sweep in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) LMP2 class today at the Shanghai track in China. G-Drive Racing took the team’s third win out of the last four races but a battle ensued throughout the race with eventual runner-up Oak Racing’s #24 car and the #26 G-Drive exchanging places for much of the race.
Qualifying yesterday showed the teams’ pace with the top five cars, all on Dunlop tyres, the only ones to break into the 1m 55s individual lap times, including John Martin and Mike Conway setting all four laps under 1m 56s in the #26 G-Drive Oreca to claim pole position by seven-tenths of a second on the four-lap average. The #24 Oak Racing Morgan was second followed by the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek giving three different chassis manufacturers on Dunlop rubber in the top positions.
The track had previously been dusty and difficult and the teams favoured the medium compound tyres throughout the weekend. The track was cleaned overnight removing any grip advantage from the rubber laid on the track in practice and all Dunlop teams elected to single stint the medium compound throughout the race.
John Martin started the #26 G-Drive car and quickly pulled out a ten second lead from which he gradually gained an advantage but it wasn’t all to run in the team’s favour. An extra stop for the team to correct a bodywork issue handed the lead to the #24 Oak Racing being driven by Alex Brundle. The two teams traded places repeatedly until John Martin took the #26 G-Drive Oreca into the lead with 40 minutes remaining where he stayed, crossing the line for maximum points from the weekend. The team now lies fourth in the championship with one race remaining. The #35 Oak Racing entry leads with a 13 point advantage on its sister #24 car.
Matt Rees, Dunlop Engineer: “The track has been difficult for the teams with reports of a lot of dust until last night and then a cleaned track today changing conditions again. The drivers all had confidence in the medium compound in practice and qualifying and stuck to their choice for the race today. The LMP2 class was very close. The top three cars all finished on the same lap and the times were very fast for what is actually an endurance race. The #41 Greaves car ran well and could have been higher than fifth if it hadn’t had a problem and the #25 ADR-Delta Oreca had a good weekend finishing fourth. The top-three all did well and we look forward to a great championship battle in Bahrain at the end of the month.”