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The 'slow zones' pioneered at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours are set to be used again in the World Endurance Championship before the end of the season.

Slow zones, sections of the track demarcated by marshals' posts in which the cars are limited to 80km/h (approximately 50mph), were adopted at Le Mans as a way of reducing the amount of time the race is run under the safety car.

The experiment was regarded as a success and now series co-organisers the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and the FIA are looking to introduce the system at the six-hour WEC races.

ACO sporting manager Vincent Beaumesnil would not comment on the speculation that they could come in as early as next month's Shanghai WEC round.

"We don't want to rush, but it was always something we wanted to use at other races," he told AUTOSPORT.

"It has to be evaluated, but at the moment we don't have the tools to do it at a normal WEC race."

It is understood that, rather than running an automated system as at Le Mans, boards showing the words "NEXT SLOW" AND "SLOW' would be displayed by marshals on the instruction of the race director.

Boards were also used at Fuji last weekend to implement the full-course yellow under which the cars must slow to 80km/h for the full lap without the deployment of the safety car.

The system, which was trialed at the Silverstone WEC race in 2013, was written into the sporting regulations for this season, but it had yet to be used because the necessary computer software to monitor the cars had not been available.

It was tested in free practice on Friday in Japan and then used for real in the third practice session on Saturday and again during the race.

The introduction of full-course yellows and, most likely, slow zones is unconnected with Marussia driver Jules Bianchi's accident during the Japanese Grand Prix.

Plans for both had been discussed with the teams at the previous round of the WEC at Austin in September.

The WEC sporting rules have also been modified to prevent a repetition of the events of the Austin race, during which a number of cars lost a lap on their competitors because they were in the pits when a red flag was shown.

They lost time because cars in front of the overall leader in parc ferme on the start-finish line at the time of the stoppage were waved around to join the back of the crocodile and cars in the pits released only when the pack had left the grid behind the safety car.

Cars that stopped in the pits before the red flags came out will now be released from the pits and sent to the back of the pack before the previous procedure begins.