The 2018 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai has been red flagged due to poor weather conditions trackside. (Updates on the conditions are at the bottom of the page)
The rain, which has been getting increasingly heavier throughout the morning in Shanghai, meant the organisers decided to start the race under safety car. Then with no improvements to the visibility, and the rain continuing to fall, race control decided to stop the race after 17 minutes, with five hours and 42 minutes remaining.
So far there have been no green flag laps.
There was one key incident during the safety car period, Thomas Laurent in the #3 Rebellion Racing R-13 had an off into the barriers at the exit of the Turn 6 hairpin. The Frenchman lost the rear end of the car, sending it into the tyres.
He continued but had to pit straight away for repairs to the rear-right corner.
“The car isn’t too bad, he lost the car, it just snapped and went straight into the wall,” said Rebellion’s Bart Hayden when asked about the condition of the car.
“It looked severe on TV but the damage isn’t too bad. We can’t repair it under the red flags, but we’ve had a look at it, and we know exactly what we need to do. We might not lose any time or only a couple of laps.”
Race control will be updating all of us trackside at regular intervals, though the weather is not set to improve, at least for the next hour or so according to forecasts.
“It’s very difficult to control the car, there’s lots of water and aquaplaning,” FIA WEC CEO Gerard Neveu told FIA WEC TV.
“The decision from the race director is the only one we can take. It is a shame, but we have to think of the safety of the drivers which is the most important thing.
“We will most likely stop for the next hour or so and monitor the conditions, as soon as we have better conditions we will restart the race.
“These aren’t the right conditions to start a race, we are sorry, we cannot control the weather.”
The race clock will continue to run through the red flag.
UPDATE: The race will be resumed at 12:10 local time.
Green flag with four hours and 45 minutes remaining.
UPDATE 2: The race ran under green for about 12 minutes, but the safety car came out again after multiple cars had offs on standing water. It was then red flagged again with four hours and 22 minutes to go.
The cars are currently stopped on the pit straight again, while we wait for an update.
On the monitors, race control says that a “decrease in rain intensity is expected around 13:15”.
“The problem is not that it is wet and humid, the combination of heavy rain plus standing water is the issue,” said Gerard Neveu to WEC TV at 12:50 local time. “There’s so many cars aquaplaning. Every 20 minutes the race director will send Yannick Dalmas on recce laps.
“The good news is that the forecast says that in about 20-30 minutes the rain won’t be as bad and will decrease in intensity.”
UPDATE 3: The five-minute board has been displayed on the grid. It looks like the organisers are going to attempt a restart.
However, race control has explained that a “decrease in rain intensity is expected around 13:30”.
UPDATE 4: The cars are rolling again, the race is resuming under safety car conditions for now with three hours and 49 minutes to go, at 13:10.
UPDATE 5: After an extended period of time under the safety car, and the entire field making pit stops, the race is green again, with a very mixed running order, with three hours and six minutes to go at 13:52 local time.
This page will be updated as it develops…
