Toyota Takes 1-2 in Bahrain Finale as Ferrari Seals Titles

Toyota ended its FIA World Endurance Championship victory drought as its No. 7 car won the 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale, as second place for Ferrari ensured the Italian marque a clean sweep of drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries enjoyed a mostly smooth run to the marque’s first WEC win in a year ahead of the sister No. 8 car of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.

But fourth place for the No. 51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi behind the sister car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen was enough to clinch the drivers’ title for the pre-race points leaders.

The result also ensured that Ferrari won the manufacturers’ prize, its first top-level title in world championship sports car racing since 1972.

Having locked out the front row in qualifying, Toyota appeared to be the manufacturer to beat for most of the race, with a strong early challenge from the No. 51 Ferrari crew appearing to fade as daytime gave way to darkness.

A mid-race safety car period caused by contact between Jenson Button’s Cadillac and the Ferrari LMGT3 car of Thomas Flohr allowed the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie to lead at half-distance, but the British marque’s advantage was short-lived as Alex Riberas picked up a drive-through penalty for a virtual safety car infringement.

That put Toyota back into a 1-2 at the head of the field, although the No. 8 car dropped back when Ryo Hirakawa was handed a drive-through for overtaking under yellow flags, giving the No. 7 machine a comfortable lead.

Another safety car period in the final hour, caused when Dries Vanthoor spun the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 and became stuck due to suspected wheel nut failure, had the impact of resetting diverging strategies, allowing Toyota to reassert its 1-2.

When the race resumed with 35 minutes to go, de Vries was around 14 seconds clear of Buemi, and maintained that advantage to the checkered flag.

Buemi fended off the No. 51 Ferrari of Pier Guidi in the closing stages to secure second, but Ferrari orchestrated a late swap of position for its two works cars, with Nielsen moving ahead of Pier Guidi, to secure a 1-2-3 in the drivers’ championship.

Fifth place for Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye meant they secured second in the standings, 16 points behind the champions, while Fuoco, Nielsen and Molina moved up to third at the expense of Porsche pair Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 V-Series.R, which entered the race with the faintest of title hopes, finished sixth in the hands of Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens.

After leading at halfway, the No. 009 Aston Martin of Riberas, Marco Sorensen and Roman de Angelis had to be content with seventh place, followed by the surviving No. 20 BMW and the two Peugeot 9X8 crews, which saw their hopes of profiting from an unorthodox strategy effectively ruined by the final safety car period.

Porsche Penske Motorsport endured a miserable final race of its three-year WEC involvement as its pair of factory 963s trailed home in 13th and 14th places.

That was after two penalties for the No. 6 car of drivers’ title hopefuls Vanthoor and Estre, as well as Matt Campbell, a five-second penalty for contact with the No. 12 Cadillac and a later ten-second penalty for an unsafe release.

Button signed off on his WEC career with a twice-lapped 16th in the No. 38 Cadillac he shared with Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais following the contact with Flohr’s Ferrari, for which he earned a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty.

Manthey Claims LMGT3 Title as Akkodis ASP Wins Finale

Victory in the LMGT3 class went to the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu, as fourth place cemented Manthey drivers Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera the title.

The No. 87 Lexus was in command for the majority of the race, with Lopez enjoying a lead of around 12 seconds before the final caution that closed up the pack.

Pera had been running in second before he handed over to Lietz for the final stint, as the Austrian driver conceded positions to both the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi and the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maxime Martin not long after the race went back to green for the final time.

Drudi, who shared the No. 27 Aston Martin with Zacharie Robichon and Ian James, was briefly in a position to attack Lopez’s Lexus for the lead, but the Italian was unable to make the move and instead later fell victim to Martin.

Second place for Martin and his co-drivers, Martin Berry and Lin Hodenius, marked by far the best finish of a mostly forgettable season for Iron Lynx.

Meanwhile, fourth was enough for Manthey trio Lietz, Hardwick and Pera to secure the championship by 14 points ahead of AF Corse Ferrari drivers Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau, who finished one place behind in fifth.

Corvette driver Daniel Juncadella emerged on top in a fierce battle with BMW’s Augusto Farfus — the Spaniard showed his dismay at the Brazilian’s defensive driving with a two-fingered salute — to claim sixth for himself, Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar.

Akkodis ASP’s pole-winning No. 78 Lexus went into the garage early on with alternator issues and did not emerge thereafter, becoming one of only two retirements in the class together with the terminally damaged No. 54 Ferrari.

RESULTS: 8 Hours of Bahrain