36 Cars Set for Bahrain Finale

Thirty-six cars are set to contest the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the seventh and final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

As seen in the provisional entry list for the event released on Tuesday, the number of cars is identical compared to the previous round at Fuji, with twelve Hypercar entries joined by 11 cars in LMP2 and 13 in GTE-Am.

In the Hypercar ranks, Nico Mueller is slated to return to the cockpit of the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 alongside Loic Duval and Gustavo Menezes, who will take part in his last race as a Peugeot driver.

Mueller sat out the 6 Hours of Fuji due to injury and was replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne, who will be promoted to the full season lineup next year in the wake of Menezes’ departure.

Floyd Vanwall Racing Team, meanwhile, has yet to confirm a third driver for the No. 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 alongside Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier – a seat that was filled at Fuji by Brazilian racer Joao Paulo de Oliveira.

In LMP2, both Tom Blomqvist and Mirko Bortolotti return to their respective seats at United Autosports and Prema after previous clashes with the NTT IndyCar Series and DTM.

Two teams in the GTE-Am class are yet to finalize their lineups, with Simon Mann the sole confirmed driver aboard the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The American driver was joined by Hiroshi Koizumi and Kei Cozzolino in Japan.

Meanwhile, Bronze-rated driver Satoshi Hoshino has not been listed aboard the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR, which he previously drove alongside Casper Stevenson and Tomonobu Fujii.