No. 7 Toyota Wins Bahrain Finale; Sister Car Takes Title

Toyota took a dominant 1-2 finish in Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, with Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa taking the FIA World Endurance Championship drivers’ title by finishing second.

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez won the race by 45.471 seconds over the No. 8 sister car.

The No. 8 crew started the race from pole one point ahead in the standings compared to the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson of Nico Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Lapierre took the challenge to the Toyotas early on, but quickly began to fade as Toyota extended its advantage.

The overall lead between the two Toyotas changed hands approaching the halfway point as Conway swapped positions with Hartley in a pre-agreed move. From there, the No. 7 car from cruised to victory.

Second place for Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa was enough to secure the drivers’ championship as the Alpine trio completed the podium in third.

It marked Toyota’s fifth world championship title and fourth consecutive in the globe-trotting series.

Peugeot experienced another trouble-filled race upon their first appearance in Bahrain, with both cars falling out of contention with gearbox-related issues. 

The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne was an early challenge to Toyota in the opening hour, until Di Resta brought the car to a halt at the end of the second hour, dropping off the lead lap as a result.

It rejoined the race and made it back into the overall top five before its race came to a definitive end when Jensen brought the car into the garage and retired with gearbox failure.

Its No. 94 sister car similarly suffered issues with Nico Mueller bringing the car to a halt shortly after Di Resta’s initial stoppage. Mueller, Gustavo Menezes and Loic Duval finished fourth overall, seven laps off the lead.

In LMP2, Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast gave Team WRT its second consecutive victory, while JOTA picked up the class title.

The No. 31 Oreca 07 Gibson took the class lead in the third hour when Rast overtook the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson.

The Anglo-American squad had paced the race from the start when Filipe Albuquerque passed the pole-sitting Realteam by WRT Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg on the opening lap.

After assuming the class lead, WRT remained at the head of the field as Frijns extended the lead and took the car to the flag.

The battle for the remaining podium positions was heavily fought, with the No. 23 United Oreca of Alex Lynn, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson finishing second.

Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens completed the podium in the No. 38 JOTA Oreca, which was enough for the trio to capture the LMP2 title.

Calado, Pier Guidi Crowned Three-Time Champions in Nail-Biting Finale

Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina won the final GTE-Pro race for AF Corse, while their teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado took the world drivers’ championship in a tense conclusion that saw them nurse their car to the finish with a gearbox problem.

The No. 52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo finished nearly 50 seconds clear of the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner, with Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen third in the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Estre took the No. 92 Porsche to the class lead by vaulting ahead of rivals at the start of the race, but would come under pressure from a charging No. 52 Ferrari of Fuoco within the first hour. 

Fuoco passed Estre with a move into Turn 8 and 9 after 50 minutes, shortly after which the race’s first Full Course Yellow shook up the order.

Fuoco, Estre and the No. 91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni pitted before the FCY, while the No. 51 Ferrari of James Calado as well as Corvette driver Nick Tandy pitted under the yellow, with Calado and Tandy vaulting up to first and second as a result.

The Italian squad would then assume a 1-2 formation when Molina, now in the No. 52 car, overtook Tandy approaching halfway.

Ferrari appeared to have the race under control until drama struck with two hours to go due to a gearbox issue for the championship-leading No. 51 car of Calado and Pier Guidi.

The two cars first switched positions, allowing Fuoco to take the class lead before the ailing sister car dropped to the back of the class with fourth gear unavailable.

However, they nurtured the wounded car to fifth in class, which proved enough to win title by three points over the No. 92 Porsche pairing.

GTE-Am class honors went to the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli, Niki Leutwiler and Mikkel O. Pedersen, with TF Sport’s Ben Keating and Marco Sorensen taking the title in the car they shared with Henrique Chaves.

Cairoli paved the way for the victory with a pass on the No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari of Rahel Frey with less than 90 minutes to go.

Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy led a significant portion of the race from pole, only losing the class lead to the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Nick Cassidy but regaining it again when they served a drive-through penalty for not respecting FCY procedures.

The all-female crew looked to be heading to their first WEC victory until Cairoli’s late pass.

They went on to finish third, with Ben Barnicoat overtaking Gatting to move the No. 56 Porsche co-driven by PJ Hyett and Gunnar Jeanette into second for a 1-2 finish by the German squad.

Keating, Chaves and Sorensen’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE finished fourth in class, which was enough for the title, with nearest rival NorthWest AMR coming home fifth in the race with the crew of Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim.

RESULTS: 8H Bahrain