Rebellion Racing has claimed it's first win across the finish line in FIA World Endurance Championship at 4 Hours of Shanghai in a hard-fought battle against Toyota.
Bruno Senna took the #1 Rebellion R13 Gibson to a victory over the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima, winning the race by a 66-second advantage over the hybrid-powered car.
Norman Nato took the start from pole position but dropped to 6th place quickly, getting overtaken by two Ginettas and Toyota #7 in LMP1 field, a move that was deemed a jump start and then struggling on the tyres during his first stint, before slowly recovering.
Nato's co-driver Gustavo Menezes took the lead in second hour of the race after having a phenomenal straight-line speed to close the gap to #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi.
The American ace gained 20 seconds over the Toyota before handing the car over to Senna for final stint of the race.
Senna took the car to it's maiden victory in LMP1 class, marking the ORECA chassis' win in both LMP1 and LMP2 class.
The victory also proved to be the Swiss squad's first since Silverstone last year, where both Toyotas were disqualified.
Bruno Senna meanwhile, now holds the unique record of winning a race in all 4 classes of World Endurance Championship.
Buemi, Nakajima and Hartley trio in #8 Toyota took second place over the sister #7 Toyota, benefiting from a drive-through penalty, also awarded to both the Team LNT Ginetta cars.
Both the Ginettas stretched lead in the opening hour of the race before dropping back significantly after their stops and drive-through penalties.
All 5 LMP1 cars took lead at some point in the race that ran under green flag conditions, apart from the Full-Course Yellow to clean the tyre debris from #95 Aston Martin.
LMP2
#38 Jota Sport took a commanding win in the hands of Anthony Davidson, Roberto Gonzalez and Antonio Felix da Costa, leading a 1-2 finish for the Sam Hignett-run squad.
It marked the American tyre supplier Goodyear's breakthrough victory in WEC in only it's third race.
#37 Jackie Chan DC finished 17-seconds off it's sister LMP2 car, finishing ahead of #22 United Autosports to complete the podium which lost power early on due to debris in engine box and had to make an unscheduled pistop.
The pole-sitting LMP2 ORECA of Cool Racing was the only retirement of the race, due to a telemetry failure that took too long to fix.
LMGTE-Pro
Updated: #51 Ferrari has been disqualified following a ride height infringement, with Porsche taking a 1-2.
#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado took their first FIA World Endurance Championship victory of the season in GTE-Pro class victory at Shanghai.
The 2017 GTE-Pro championship-winning duo benefited from a late puncture by #95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson to win the race across the line that resulted in only full-course yellow procedure of the race.
Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen finished second in the race, after recovering from a ten-second penalty for unsafe release.
Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz completed podium for Porsche.
LMGTE-Am
#90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE took it's second consecutive victory in GTE-Am class, driven by Jonny Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc.
Contact between #56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Egidio Perfetti and #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana resulted in a drive-through penalty for the Perfetti, handing the lead to Yoluc.
Darren Turner then took the lead in #98 Aston in third hour of the race, before Adam attacked his fellow Aston Martin factory driver, retaking the lead.
In the end, Eastwood took the win after stopping for a late splash, coming out 16 seconds ahead of #57 Team Project 1 Porsche which finished 2nd in the class.
The podium was completed by #98 Aston Martin of Darren Turner, Ross Gunn and Paul Dalla Lana.
#78 Dempsey-Proton Porsche meanwhile, had a collision with Cool Racing ORECA, which didn't result in a penalty but clipped the front of #78 Porsche, with double-repair for the car dropping the all-Monegasque squad to last place.
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