A dream race

The Chinese round of the WEC couldn’t have unfolded better for us, as it allowed me to score yet another victory.
Everything started during qualifying : with Anthony, we qualified within the same 1000th of a second than the Porsche car. In the WEC championship, the qualifying times are averaged on four laps. By a sort of challenge to statistics, two cars were in the very same 1000th ! As the Porsche was first to qualify, it started from the pole-position.

On Sunday, during the race, we really were on top of all ! We enjoyed a better tyre wear than our opponents, and we eventually lapped all of them but our team-mates on the Toyota number 7. The car really was easy to drive in Shanghaï, the team made a super job, we were all most happy with our week-end. Actually, we were so confortable with our tyre wear that we could have made them last two stints instead of just one. However, we preferred to play it safe and not risk a puncture on worn tyres.
We also had to adapt our strategy during the race: we initially planned to make a brief stop to fill up the tank some 7 laps prior to the chequered flag, the so-called “splash” stop. As the Safety Car came out at the beginning of the race, we decided to swap strategy and to stop early, under the Safety Car. Another winning bet.

Thanks to this 4th victory this season, Anthony and I lead the field, 42 points clear of the Audi 2 drivers. There are still two rounds to compete, or 52 points to score. Nothing is done yet, but let’s say we are on the right path! Of course, we are going to stay focused, but I can’t stress how impatient I am to race in Bahrain and in Sao Paulo, the last two rounds.

Bahrain should play in our favour, as that track is made of straight lines and hard braking zones, which help us to load our batteries. Sao Paulo could be slightly well less suited for our car, but as we have been competitive on all sorts of tracks so far, I am still very confident. Don’t forget to keep an eye on my Toyota number 8 in Bahrain!