Built in 2004, the Shanghai circuit is the work of German architect Hermann Tilke, as are several modern circuits like those in Malaysia and Bahrain among others. Its layout resembles the Chinese character shàng 上 meaning above. The track is 5.451 km long with 16 turns and a daunting straight that you can see in this video taken on board the #91 Porsche of Bruni-Lietz.  

The fastest time clocked at this circuit in the FIA WEC belongs to the Toyota TS050 Hybrid, in 2017, with a time of 1:42.526. 

Today at Shanghai, the two teams with the best performances at the morning and afternoon free practice sessions were Rebellion Racing (Rebellion R13-Gibson) then Team LNT (Ginetta G60-LT-P1-AER). The latter dominated the day's timesheet with a time of 1:48.127 over TOYOTA GAZOO Racing's best time of 1:48.188. The Success Handicap established this season in the LMP1 class seems to be positively affecting the action on the track. 

Tomorrow, Saturday, qualifying will prove more significant relative to the sheer speed demonstrated by the different cars. During the four-hour race on Sunday, competitors will also have to manage average stint speed, strategies, tyre usage and reliability among other things in all four classes. The weather forecast for the round predicts sunny skies.

Click for the Free Practice 1 and 2 results. 

Programme for the Free Practice 3, the Qualifying Sessions and the Race.