28 Entries for Bahrain

Photo: John Dagys

The provisional entry list for the Six Hours of Bahrain has been released, featuring 28 cars for the eighth and final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

With titles still on the line in LMP2, GTE-Pro and GTE-Am, there’s still plenty up for grabs as teams head to the Middle East for the second trip to the state-of-the-art Bahrain International Circuit.

ENTRY LIST: Click Here

The LMP1 field remains unchanged from last weekend’s Six Hours of Shanghai, other than the return of Kaz Nakajima to the No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid, which finished second with drivers Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre. The Chinese round saw Audi’s Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval wrap up the Drivers’ World Championship.

Nine cars are again set to do battle in LMP2, with a number of driver changes.

Fabien Giroix joins the No. 25 Delta-ADR Oreca 03 Nissan with Craig Dolby and Robbie Kerr, while 19-year-old Lucas Auer will make his sports car debut in the No. 31 Lotus LMP2 Praga with Kevin Weeda and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

While the lineup in the No. 45 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan remains unchanged, both Tom Kimber-Smith and Alessandro Latif are set to join Bjorn Wirdheim in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN Nissan.

OAK’s Martin Plowman, Bertrand Baguette and Ricardo Gonzalez hold a 15-point lead in the advantage in the LMP2 drivers’ championship ahead of teammates Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson.

With a 22.5-point advantage over the third-placed G-Drive Racing by Delta-ADR entry, and 26 points up for grabs in the season finale, the title looks to be favorably in the hands of the French squad.

The title race is much closer in GTE-Pro, with just a 5.5-point lead for Aston Martin Racing’s Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke over the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia pairing of Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni.

Aston Martin, meanwhile, holds a 17-point edge in the Manufacturer’s Championship, while the Prodrive-run AMR squad has a 8.5-point margin over AF Corse in the team’s title race.

While there are no driver changes in GTE-Pro, the GTE-Am class sees the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari sees Matt Griffin being joined by Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard join Matt Griffin, replacing Jack Gerber and Marco Cioci. Additionally, Roald Goethe is listed to drive the No. 96 Aston Martin.

Victory for the 8Star Motorsports Ferrari in Shanghai has put the American team within five points of the class-leading No. 96 Aston Martin Racing entry in the teams’ championship, with Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall topping the drivers’ title race, but only four points ahead of IMSA Performance Matmut’s Jean-Karl Vernay and Raymond Narac.

The Six Hours of Bahrain is set for Nov. 28-30.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John