ROCHFORD born Will Stevens helped JOTA Sport, operating this season under G-Drive Racing, make it back-to-back LMP2 victories in the FIA World Endurance Championship with a dominant performance in the 6 Hours of Shanghai.

Stevens, a former Thorpe Hall School pupil, lined up alongside team-mates Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov and showed superb pace and tactical awareness throughout the Chinese race to bring the #26 ORECA 05-Nissan to the chequered flag with an advantage of over a minute on their nearest rivals.

And Stevens was delighted with the display.

“It was comfortable for us and we did a great strategy so well done to the team,” said Stevens.

“It is nice to get a second win in as many races and show what we can do out there against some tough competition.”

From fourth on the LMP2 grid, British racer Brundle made up a place at the start and then made a decisive pass on Alex Lynn (Manor) and Nicolas Lapierre (Signatech Alpine) for the class lead ahead of his first round of pitstops.

Rusinov took over from Alex Brundle just ahead of the two-hour mark, initially losing the advantage to the #30 car of Antonio Giovinazzi, but then re-claiming the top spot as the differing tyre strategies of the 2015 LMP2 champion and his rival played themselves out.

The Russian’s strong performance ensured that Stevens had an advantage of more than 30 seconds when he climbed aboard the car at the three-and-a-half-hour mark.

Stevens stretched out even more of an advantage, lapping within fifteen hundredths of a second of the best LMP2 time of the day and crossing the line with a comfortable winning margin.

The Shanghai victory was the second in successive FIA WEC races for the JOTA Sport-run team and the third in four weekends that included them claiming the European Le Mans Series crown in Portugal last month.

G-Drive Racing remain third in the WEC LMP2 teams’ standings, but are now only 12 points behind the second-place squad, RGR Sport, with 26 points up for grabs at the season finale in Bahrain later this month.

And Sam Hignett, partner at JOTA Sport, remains happy with the team’s form.

“It has been a very good month for us with three wins and a title achieved,” said Hignett.

“This is a big reflection on the team and how we operate.”