Bahrain 8H – Syndication Server

Bahrain’s WEC finale caps off a truly remarkable sports car season

It feels fitting that after the closest, most dramatic FIA WEC season to date, the major honors were split across the top three Hypercar manufacturers, with Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari all taking a slice of the pie. Porsche’s No. 6 crew held on to …

Porsche’s No. 6 crew held on to claim the Hypercar drivers’ world championship despite finishing down the order in the finale. Toyota snatched the manufacturers’ crown in the final hour of the season with a spirited drive from Sebastien Buemi. And Ferrari, despite missing out on a title, will look back on the 2024 season fondly after claiming its second Le Mans victory in a row back in June.

It really was a remarkable campaign, one which had a bit of everything. It produced its fair share of thrills and spills on track and off, regular doses of drama and controversy and a number of historic milestones.

With the dust settled during the off season, there will be so much to unpack and reflect on before the WEC paddock reconvenes next year in Qatar for next season. Right now, though, it’s time to celebrate the newly crowned champions after the wild end to the season in Sakhir.

For Porsche Penske Motorsport, it was a truly memorable day, even if it wasn’t quite the fairytale ending that everyone within the organization dreamed of.

Having claimed a sweep of IMSA GTP titles, a GTD PRO championship with AO Racing and the FIA WEC LMGT3 and Hypercar World Cup honors with Pure Rxcing and HERTZ Team JOTA prior to Bahrain, completing the set in the Middle East with both Hypercar titles felt almost inevitable.

WEC season finales never fail to produce drama, and on this occasion, the wily old fox that is Toyota pulled off the upset, coming in and stealing the manufacturers’ title after a late-race showdown between Buemi and Matt Campbell.

The safety car periods and a full course yellow which bunched up the field and set up a nail-biting final hour played a huge role. They allowed the pole-sitting No. 8 Toyota to recover from its dramas earlier in the race by the time it emerged from the pit lane for the final time. All of a sudden, having looked down and out with three hours to go, Toyota’s outlook changed. Buemi was strapped in, held a tire advantage over Campbell ahead in the No. 5, and had a chance to cap off an amazing performance with one final overtake for the win.

A dream come true for Buemi and company, with post-race emotions and sheer exhaustion overflowing. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

“When I jumped in towards the end I was like P10, and I knew how hard it was to make progress, so I didn’t think we could come back,” Buemi explained. “But what happened was, with my tire advantage I was able to make moves every lap or two and we managed to execute a shorter stop at the end, jumping the No. 6 Porsche, the Ferrari, and it meant all I had to do was to catch the No. 5.

“It was like a dream as suddenly I knew we could win. It felt like everything was going our way, unlike the rest of the whole season. It might be the best drive of my career.”

A truly special drive indeed, with so much at stake, to deliver Toyota a fourth consecutive Hypercar manufacturers’ title in a row and the only win from pole by a team in the class this season. It also helped take the sting out of the sister car’s torrid outing, as ultimately, with the No. 6 Porsche’s troubles, both sets of drivers’ title contenders from Toyota and Ferrari will rue the missed opportunity.

The No. 7 retired with a fuel pump issue, which according to TGR’s team principal-driver Kamui Kobayashi, damaged the engine and severely blunted the car’s performance. The decision to park the car was a painful one to make, but it allowed the entire engineering staff to shift focus to the No. 8’s charge.

Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning No. 50 499P finished the race, but way down the order in 11th after struggling for outright pace throughout and losing valuable time to a puncture.

The season’s ups and downs gave us a split set of champions, much to the delight of Porsche’s leading crew of (from left to right) Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

It all meant that the drivers’ honors went the way of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, despite their struggles and first non-points finish of the season.

All three drivers played their part this season, delivering a consistent run of results en route to being crowned Hypercar drivers’ world champions for the first time. In a field this deep, racking up two wins and two second-place finishes in eight races was no easy feat. It’s a title run that will be looked back on for a long time to come.

“When you see how competitive the field is, it’s special,” Lotterer, who departs Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Hypercar program with his head held high, said in the post-race conference.

“Before in LMP1, Le Mans was what everyone wanted, and if you won the championship it was just OK. Now with so much competition, the world championship has great value. Today wasn’t the best day, but we had the luxury to afford it. We will go home happy, target achieved.”

“This year has been amazing,” added Vanthoor. “I’ve never worked with a group like this, with my teammates, engineers and mechanics. It hasn’t sunk in, but today is one I will never forget.”

Toyota roars to fraught WEC crown in tense Bahrain 8 Hour finale

Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing …

With a relatively tame first half, the season finale came alive in the final three hours, as the string of yellows kept the field bunched up and set up a sprint finish. Battles raged up and down the order in both categories with time winding down and the ambient temperature falling, producing a number of surprise results — in the case of Hypercar, having championship implications.

As for the titles, the No. 8’s charge to the front in the final hour saw Toyota claim manufacturers’ honors out of nowhere. The pole-sitting car looked down and out when it was turned into a spin in the opening hour by a TF Sport Corvette, costing the 2023 champions valuable track position, but they never gave up, and through a combination of willpower and tire strategy, found a way back into contention.

When Sebastien Buemi was strapped in for the run to the flag, he was in the zone and on a mission. After the final round of pit stops, which saw the car climb to second, he found himself in a straight fight with Porsche’s No. 5 car for the championship.

Buemi then promptly caught and passed Matt Campbell with a bold move for the win with 39 minutes remaining. The Australian was unable to respond once Buemi found a way through and eventually crossed the line third.

Second place slipped away in heartbreaking fashion on the final lap, when Antonio Giovinazzi found a way past in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which led the majority of the race but lost precious time to a longer final pit stop.

“That was maybe my best drive,” Buemi said. “The early contact put us on the back foot, but it’s always a long game and our strategy was to make sure we saved some great tires for the end of the race.

“When I jumped back into the car, we were down in 10th and I honestly thought we had no chance to come back, but with our tire advantage I was able to make some moves and I knew the No. 5 would begin struggling at some point. In the end, everything fell into place perfectly.”

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“We saved tires for the end and Seb delivered,” added teammate Brendon Hartley. “We wanted to spoil the Porsche party and we did. It feels good to get a win going into the winter break.”

Despite Toyota’s miraculous turnaround, all was not lost for Porsche. In the drivers title race, Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor clung on in the No. 6 963, despite finishing outside the top 10.

It was a roller coaster outing for the trio, who endured their worst result of the season after spending more than half the race recovering from a messy start.

Vanthoor, who was behind the wheel when the lights went out, dropped from sixth to dead last on lap one following contact with title rival Miguel Molina in the No. 50 Ferrari at Turn 4. A metronomic run for multiple hours put them back in podium contention, but their hard work was undone when a drive-through penalty for an FCY violation and two 5s time penalties for incidents dropped them to 11th.

Luckily, an equally disastrous outing for their title rivals in the No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari allowed them to seal it with a non-points finish.

The No. 7 retired with a recurring fuel pump issue which struck hard after Nyck de Vries took the lead in the fifth hour and the No. 50 limped home in 12th.

Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning 499P failed to feature, struggling for pace after the contact at Turn 1 forced Miguel Molina in for an early nose change, then suffered a puncture when it was hit by an Alpine in the penultimate hour.

“A horrible race — a really horrible one,” Vanthoor said after becoming a Hypercar world champion. “But we did the baseline for this throughout the season, with great strategy and a great car. That’s why we are world champions today.

“It has to sink in. It’s one of the best days of my life. Besides this race, we were flawless; we were the perfect group.”

For Peugeot, Saturday’s race didn’t produce a fairytale end to its tough season, but the No. 93 9X8 finishing fourth will serve as a confidence boost for the team ahead of winter. Mikkel Jensen pushed hard at the end and managed to beat the No. 35 Alpine home.

UPDATE: The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari lost its second-place finish to a post-race penalty for using too many tires during the race (28 instead of 26), and is now classified 14th after being handed a 4m55s time penalty for the infraction. Peugeot therefore took third and the No. 5 moves up to second.

Second win of the year for Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari in LMGT3. JEP/Motorsport Images

LMGT3 had high drama as well. Vista AF Corse’s No. 55 Ferrari held off TF Sport’s Corvettes to claim the Italian team’s second victory of the season and second in a row after the sister car won in Fuji.

Alessio Rovera was masterful late in the race, surviving a lengthy duel with an emotionally charged Charlie Eastwood, racing this weekend in memory of his late father.

“We managed to do it. My teammates (Simon Mann and Francois Heriau) did an amazing job managing the tires early, because the key was the last three hours,” Rovera said.

“I had new tires at the end and the fight with the Corvette was really nice. It was fair because we didn’t touch. It’s a win we deserved because we were really close to podiums all season.”

Eastwood followed Rovera home in the No. 81, crossing the line 3s back, ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the No. 82. It wasn’t a win, but it was by far the most impressive outing from the new Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R in WEC competition yet.

“It kind of sums up our season again — a story of what could have been without the safety car,” Eastwood’s teammate Rui Andrade summarized. “We were ahead by about 40s beforehand. We were in a good rhythm and had good pace, but I was kind of in no man’s land because we didn’t take tires on my second stint.

“We were hoping the strategy would pay off, and Charlie would get new tires and back into the lead. Nevertheless, I’m really happy to finish the season with such strong races back-to-back-to-back. Since COTA, the car has been super-strong and the team has done a great job making it faster and faster.”

Off the podium, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini came from nowhere to take fourth and Morris Schuring steered Manthey EMA’s Porsche to fifth.

Further down the order, the two McLarens that locked out the front row in Qualifying fell away after a strong start to the race. The No. 59 ended up sixth and the No. 95 dropped to eighth. They finished ahead of the title-winning Pure Rxcing Porsche which could only muster ninth, and both the Iron Dames Lamborghini and Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

All three looked to be in the running for victory in the second half of the race due to the timing of the first safety car, which fell at the right time and enabled them to rise up the order. In the late-race melee, though, they faded and failed to retain top five positions.

RESULTS

Hartley puts Toyota on pole for WEC Bahrain 8 Hours

Brendon Hartley set a 1m46.714s in this evening’s Hypercar Hyperpole session in Bahrain to claim pole position for tomorrow’s FIA WEC season finale, leading a front-row lockout for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Hartley’s flyer in the No. 8 GR010 HYBRID came …

Hartley’s flyer in the No. 8 GR010 HYBRID came with more than four minutes left on the clock. It was fast enough to put him three-tenths clear of Nyck de Vries in the sister No. 7 car which slotted in second moments later with a 1m47.037s.

“Big thanks to my teammates for trusting me to do qualifying,” Hartley said. “Yesterday we were not happy with the car, we’ve turned it around. It’s never perfect but I learned from Quali 1, and in Hyperpole the car came alive. It’s been a tough year for car 8 so we want to finish the year on a high.”

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The second row of the grid will be occupied by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P and the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche after strong efforts from Antonio Giovinazzi and Neel Jani respectively.

The No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari will start fifth, 0.8s off. Crucially though, both of the drivers’ title-contending crews from Toyota and Ferrari (in the No. 7 and No. 50) will start ahead of the points-leading No. 6 Porsche which will line up sixth on the grid ahead of the No. 5.

A few key cars failed to make it into the top-10 shootout, including the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R — which took pole last time out — and both Alpine A424s.

After having his penultimate lap deleted for track limits, Alex Lynn pushed on his final flyer at the end of the session but would only climb to 13th from the bottom of the pile in the Cadillac.

“That was my lap,” Lynn told RACER. “That was going to be the one before it was deleted, as it’s a one-lap shootout here really because of deg.”

Mick Schumacher, meanwhile, ended up 17th in the No. 36 Alpine. The German ran wide and off-track at the final corner in the closing seconds of the session after improving through Sectors 1 and 2.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari which won Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas will also start outside the top 10 (in 12th), as will the pair of Peugeot 9X8s that set the pace in two of the three practice sessions prior to qualifying. The No. 94 claimed 15th on the grid ahead of the No. 93 that will start last after having three of its laps deleted due to a technical infringement. Jean-Eric Vergne explained that the car suffered with power issues, which caused the engine to cut out and ultimately led to the infringement.

“We should have the pace to be able to fight for points tomorrow though,” he added.

Josh Caygill, Nicolas Pino and Marino Sato celebrate pole with the United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo. JEP/Motorsport Images

In LMGT3, United Autosports locked out the front row with its pair of McLaren GT3 Evos with head-turning efforts from Josh Caygill and James Cottingham.

Caygill put the No. 95 on top, delivering United its first LMGT3 pole and McLaren its second this season (after Inception took pole at Le Mans) with a 2m02.201s. But there was almost nothing to separate the two McLarens, as Cottingham placed the No. 59 second with a time just two thousandths off.

“We had a really good car for quali,” Caygill said. “We worked on race setup and tire management in practice and never showed our ultimate pace. I was happy with the lap, lost a bit at the last corner but overall it’s good.”

The top three in the class were completed by the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, Francois Heriau steering his 296 to a 2m02.367s in the Hyperpole shootout.

Sarah Bovy placed the Iron Dames Lamborghini on the second row in fourth with her effort, ahead of the title-winning Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche which will start tomorrow’s race fifth.

After topping two of the three practice sessions, AKKODIS ASP only managed to sneak one of its Lexus RC F LMGT3s into Hyperpole, though Arnold Robin was unable to improve on 10th. The No. 78 will start behind the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, Fuji-winning Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the pair of TF Sport Corvettes, which will line up sixth through ninth.

D’Station’s Aston Martin came closest to making it into the second part of the LMGT3 sessions, qualifying 11th with a time from Clement Mateu that was just a tenth off making the cut.

Both Team WRT BMWs also failed to make it through, along with the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche and both Proton Ford Mustangs.

Tomorrow’s eight-hour WEC season finale at the Bahrain International Circuit is set to get underway at 2pm local time.

RESULTS

Tactics, teammates key to WEC title battles at Bahrain finale

The FIA WEC season finale is upon us, with track action now underway at the Bahrain International Circuit. At the head of the field in Hypercar, the spotlight is on the championship battles. After Pure Rxcing clinched the LMGT3 honors last time out, the Hypercar drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles are set to be awarded on Saturday night after one final showdown under the lights in Sakhir.

A glance at the headline Hypercar points standings tells you it’s Porsche’s to lose, but nobody in the Penske garage believes it will be a stroll in the park. “That’s not how motorsport works,” noted Urs Kuratle, the head of Porsche’s factory LMDh program.

So what’s the situation?

In the drivers’ standings, the leaders in the No. 6 Porsche — André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor — became the first trio to win two races this year last time out in Japan and, as a result, find themselves with one hand each on the trophy, 35 points clear at the top. With a maximum score of just 39 points now available, all they need is an eighth-place finish or better to seal the deal.

Porsche’s No. 6 crew have executed consistently well, but there’s still eight tricky hours to go before they can count their mission accomplished JEP/Motorsport Images

The pressure is still on, though. One silly error or mechanical hiccup during the eight-hour race and it’ll be game on, bringing Ferrari’s Le Mans winning No. 50 crew of Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen or Toyota’s full-season No. 7 duo of Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries back into play. Ferrari’s crew are 35 points back, while Toyota’s is 37. The mountain they must climb to turn things around is steep, but not insurmountable.

“You’re never comfortable until you win it. We are not getting carried away with our lead, we just have to keep our heads down and not think about it,” Lotterer told RACER. “We have to just tackle the tasks in front of us — there’s no reason to change the approach to it, we just need to manage mistakes and risks.

“We have improved our car for this circuit quite a bit compared to last year, as last time our setup was not ideal. So we hope to be OK.”

In the immediate aftermath of the race at Fuji, where both Ferrari and Toyota’s efforts faltered after the No. 50 499P tumbled down the leaderboard to ninth in the closing stages and the No. 7 GR010 crashed out, the mood in both camps was understandably downbeat. Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars, Ferdinando Cannizzo, even came out and admitted to reporters that he felt the title battle was “all but over.”

But with time to reflect and prepare for the final race, there is still the belief that the deficit can be overcome, particularly at Ferrari. This is because it expects that the “Joker” update introduced for the 499P in Brazil to improve brake cooling and aero efficiency will give it a leg up this weekend.

While the notoriously abrasive track surface will still present a huge tire management challenge to its drivers, the car should be better suited to dealing with the ambient temperature, which is expected to hover between 77 and 86 degrees F all weekend.

Ferrari is hopeful the updates to its 499P introduced in Brazil will provide a leg up in Bahrain. JEP/Motorsport Images

“We want to win the championship as well as Le Mans, and we know doing both is difficult,” said Nielsen. “The chances are quite small, but we have nothing to lose — we want to give it our best shot.”

“Early in the race in Bahrain is tough when it’s hot, it’s going to be about managing the tires. Usually, our car gets faster when the temperature drops, so hopefully we can be there at the end.”

In the manufacturers’ title race, it’s a different story. Porsche’s advantage is just 10 points over Toyota and 27 over Ferrari.

This is where the performance of the sister cars could prove to be vital. The No. 5, No. 8 and No. 51 crews from Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari respectively, will need to be dialed in, as they have a real opportunity to play their part despite being out of the hunt for driver honors.

While Toyota’s No. 7 maintains slim hopes in the driver’s standings, the marque is still well placed in the manufacturers’ race heading into Saturday’s finale. Motorsport Images

“We go into the last race with the destiny of the manufacturers’ world championship still in our control,” Toyota’s team principal & driver Kamui Kobayashi points out. “We know that a win will give us the title so that is our target, and everyone will give their maximum to achieve it. We need a perfect weekend and we’re ready for the challenge.”

Nevertheless, the level of both confidence and expectation is high at Porsche, as it should be. 2024 has been a spectacular turnaround year for the Porsche Penske Motorsport operation on both sides of the Atlantic. It has gone from soul searching to trophy hunting in a matter of months and finds itself on the brink of a clean sweep of Hypercar and IMSA GTP titles.

“Our team converted the penalty kick in the IMSA title fight. Now, we also want to win the FIA WEC championship,” said Thomas Laudenbach, the vice president of Porsche Motorsport. “We’ve improved considerably in the second year of our global program and unfailingly made the most of our opportunities. I expect nothing less at the upcoming race weekend in Bahrain.

“If we approach our mission with the same concentration and consistency as in the previous rounds, then we’ll achieve our goal: 2024 world champions in the manufacturer and driver categories.”

Advantage BMW in second Bahrain WEC practice

After Peugeot set the pace in the opening practice session of the WEC weekend in Bahrain, BMW Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor reeled off a 1m48.257s in the No. 15 M Hybrid V8 to top Free Practice 2 under the floodlights. The Belgian’s lap is the fastest …

The Belgian’s lap is the fastest time of the week so far, 2.6 seconds quicker than Paul Di Resta’s session-topping time from FP1 earlier today. It was also a tenth faster than Matt Campbell in the No. 5 Porsche, which slotted in second this evening as the track began to rubber in and the temperature dropped.

The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which was quick in FP1, finished up the night third, ahead of the No. 7 Toyota which made it four manufacturers in the top four, all setting times within four tenths.

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The top five in the penultimate practice session of the season was completed by the Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari, Antonio Fuoco setting the car’s best time, a 1m48.701s.

As for Peugeot, its rapid form from this afternoon didn’t carry over as both crews continued to run through their practice programs. The pair of 9X8s ended up at the bottom of the Hypercar timing screens, 17th and 18th, both over five seconds off the pace. Significantly, though, Peugeot spent the entire session with both cars running on used tires.

In the LMGT3 ranks, however, Lexus’ fast start the weekend continued, with AKKODIS ASP’s No. 87 RC F LMGT3 leading the way this time after the sister car finished FP1 on top. Frenchman Esteban Masson set the time, a 2m02.246s, putting himself 0.7s clear of the other drivers.

TF Sport’s No. 82 Corvette took second, while Vista AF Corse claimed third in the classification with its No. 55 296 LMGT3.

FP2 was another clean session, which ran almost mostly green. The only notable incident was minor and came at Turn 1. Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi was handed a reprimand for colliding with the D’Station Aston Martin in his No. 51 499P, turning the Vantage around, and scattering a shard of debris across the track.

Track action continues tomorrow at 12:00pm local time with Free Practice 3.

RESULTS

Toyota dominates Bahrain 8 Hour WEC season finale

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID scored a dominant 8 Hours of Bahrain victory Saturday evening from pole position, bringing another highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese-flagged team to a close. With their second win of the …

With their second win of the season, Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa claimed the 2023 Hypercar World Endurance drivers’ championship, taking the manufacturer’s 45th all-time win as well as six victories from seven races in 2023 for the Cologne-based program.

Behind, the No. 7 sister Toyota came home second to make it a 1-2. It was a hard-fought podium for the No. 7 crew after a superb comeback drive early in the race.

Mike Conway was hit from behind by Cadillac’s Earl Bamber on the entry of Turn 1 at the start, which turned the Toyota around, dropping it to the back of the pack. “Everyone trying to win it in the first corner isn’t working well,” Conway said later.

Bamber explained after the race that he wasn’t trying to make an ambitious lunge.

“I was actually not trying to pass anyone; I was just braking,” he said. “Then, in the middle of the brake zone, both front tires just locked up. I tried to avoid the left-hand side bit just clapped the Toyota. I feel bad we affected their race and we obviously affected our own.”

The Briton had a mountain to climb but put his head down and steered the No. 7 to third in the opening hour. Kamui Kobayashi then took second off the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado at Turn 1 with just under six hours to go.

From there, the No. 7’s run to the front stalled, with Hartley, Hirakawa and Buemi at the end managing the gap back to the sister car. The winning margin was 47s after eight hours.

“It has been an amazing year,” Hartley said. “I am really proud to be part of the No. 8 crew and this Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic season. We have had some fierce battles with car No. 7 and the other Hypercar competitors all year and today was no different. There were times when we were not the fastest car on the track so we were really pushing. Seb had the most stressful part of the race today, getting through the first corner cleanly but he and Ryo did a great job. Becoming a four-time world champion is probably going to take a while to sink in, but it sounds really nice.”

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The No. 7’s season featured many highs, including wins at Sebring, Spa, Monza and Fuji to keep Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the hunt for the drivers’ title and help ensure Toyota claimed the manufacturers’ crown on home soil. But the No. 7’s woes at Portimao and retirement at Le Mans proved extremely costly and ultimately prevented them from beating the sister car to the title.

Elsewhere, both Ferraris were mathematically in the title hunt for today’s finale, but for either crew to win, they needed both Toyotas to hit major trouble.

Neither 499P had the outright pace on this occasion and, instead, found themselves fighting for third with the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and each other for much of the race. Frustrations did eventually boil over at Ferrari in the second half, too, when Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco made contact more than once after the sixth round of stops.

As for JOTA, its privately run Porsche 963 produced arguably the standout performance of the race en route to an impressive fourth-place finish for the British team, after herculean performances from Will Stevens, Yifei Ye and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Culminating after hours of fighting, Stevens crossed the line under a second behind Fuoco, who secured the final podium spot in the No. 50. The sister 499P came home sixth behind the No. 6 Penske Porsche.

A fifth-place finish for the No. 6 came on a day when neither Penske Porsche 963, nor the Proton example, featured in the battle for a place on the podium.. It was a quiet outing for both Peugeot 9X8s and the Cadillac V-Series.R, too. Cadillac Racing’s 11th-place finish in particular will come as a huge disappointment for all involved after showing so much promise pre-race.

The car started third after Alex Lynn’s Qualifying heroics but had to serve a 90s stop and hold for hitting the No. 7 at Turn 1. With no safety car periods during the eight hours, the team couldn’t find a way back into the race.

Team WRT dominated LMP2. Motorsport Images

In LMP2, Team WRT’s No. 41 ORECA of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz comfortably won the drivers’ and teams’ titles with a win from 10th on the grid. It was a metronomic run from the trio to the finish, while their title rivals from United Autosports and Inter Europol endured tough outings, punctuated by setbacks in the first half of the race.

United’s No. 22 ORECA was handed a punishing 90s stop and hold for hitting the Vanwall at the exit of Turn 1 at the start, while Inter Europol’s car lost chunks of time to a technical hiccup which forced Albert Costa to stop twice and complete power cycles.

This made it a relatively comfortable run to the flag for WRT’s title-winning crew in the final outing for LMP2 as a full-season WEC category. The No. 22 finished ninth, while the Inter Europol Gibson-powered ORECA took sixth. With a lead of over 30 points before the race, it was always going to be a long shot for either United or Inter Europol to clinch the title anyway.

Behind the No. 41 WRT, the sister No. 31 car took second making it a 1-2 for the Belgian team that is set to graduate to Hypercar with BMW next year. It was a heartbreaking final hour for Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns, though. The trio didn’t put a foot wrong and lost the lead after an issue at its final stop. The No. 28 JOTA ORECA finished the night in third.

It was a day to forget for Vector Sport’s ORECA and the No. 23 United ORECA. Both had their races ruined by 90s stop-and-go penalties for running with tyre pressures below the stated limit early in the race and “gaining a huge advantage.”

Both cars were leading at the time the decisions from race control came through. Vector’s car eventually retired in the final hour with a suspected throttle sensor issue, while the No. 23 came home eighth.

The Iron Dames claimed the last ever GTE victory. Motorsport Images

The final ever GTE victory, meanwhile, went the way of the Iron Dames Porsche after a highly-entertaining eight-hour battle for the 13 cars present for the category’s swansong. It was a hugely significant result for the program and the championship, as Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting’s performance secured the first-ever WEC class win for an all-female crew.

With the titles wrapped up by Corvette Racing in Monza, this was a straight fight with the pressure of a championship battle lifted. The gloves were off, and the category signed off its stint in the WEC, which dates back to the inaugural season in 2012, with a memorable encounter.

The D’Station Racing Aston Martin took second and Casper Stevenson was unable to catch and pass Gatting in the final hour. The No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage made it a double-podium for the British manufacturer with a third-place finish.

“The final stint was pressured and stressful for me inside the car, but in the end, the feedback I was getting from our engineer helped made me stay calm,” Gatting said after the win. “At one point I could really see the No. 777 Aston Martin was very close. I pushed a bit more to increase the gap a bit, and in the end with the traffic I managed to increase the gap even more and feel pretty in control.

“To be honest, I just enjoyed the last ride in this car. It’s been an absolute pleasure having the opportunity to drive the Porsche this year. Finally getting this win is something we’ve wanted to achieve for a long time, and it’s quite emotional for all of us. This is what exactly what we want to achieve; we want to prove that we can compete on exactly the same terms as everybody else and we are here to win races.”

For much of the race, Iron Lynx’s No. 60 Porsche led the way, after monster stints from Matteo Cressoni and later Alessio Picariello. Sadly, though, the car had to be parked with 2h20m remaining as the team’s Bronze driver, Claudio Schivaoni, was not well enough to drive.

By regulation, the Bronze driver in each car must complete 2h20m during an eight-hour race. Thus, the team switched its driver order and held out as long as possible, but Schavoni felt unable to climb in for the end and the team parked the car early.

The GTE Am championship winners, in Corvette Racng’s final race as a factory with the C8.R, had an uncharacteristically forgettable run to seventh, but nevertheless enjoyed the final chapter of a spectacular season for the program.

RESULTS

Ferrari Bahrain struggles another chapter in the up-and-down Hypercar season

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado says the team’s struggles for outright performance in Bahrain haven’t come as a surprise. In the three practice sessions, Ferrari’s 499Ps didn’t come close to setting the best lap time, and wound up with the No. …

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado says the team’s struggles for outright performance in Bahrain haven’t come as a surprise.

In the three practice sessions, Ferrari’s 499Ps didn’t come close to setting the best lap time, and wound up with the No. 50 qualifying ahead of the No. 51 in fifth and sixth respectively, both cars over a second off the pole time. With the drivers’ title on the line, things will need to turn around rapidly if Ferrari’s drivers are to challenge Toyota’s crews in the finale.

The Bahrain circuit is notoriously tough on tires, though. This is due to its abrasive tarmac, which has never been resurfaced since the circuit opened, and the nature of the layout, which features a lot of heavy braking and hard acceleration. Couple that with the fact that over a stint, the 499P has often struggled to look after its tires during the season.

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From the start of practice in Fuji the 499Ps have not shown the same level of outright performance as they did in the run from Sebring to Le Mans, which was of course highlighted by the historic victory at La Sarthe in June. Calado, though, says this is in line with the team’s expectations, due to the nature of the circuits since Le Mans and the steps made by its Hypercar competitors.

“We knew this track would hurt us a lot in terms of performance but the gap has been big so far and we are scratching our heads,” he told RACER. “There is no doubt we are struggling and trying to improve.”

Part of that effort is focused on maximizing the car’s performance over a stint.

“We’ve written off one-lap performance — we don’t think we can beat Toyota on one lap,” Calado continued. “In the past, we could compete and get poles, but we’ve changed the car a bit to improve tire degradation and long runs.

“With the weather and red flags so far this week, though, it’s disrupted our plans. Before the final practice we weren’t able to complete long runs so we didn’t know where we are. When you look at numbers, it’s no surprise for me. We are doing the best we can with what we’ve got.”

It’s a similar story for the drivers in the sister No. 50 Ferrari, who are still mathematically in the hunt for the drivers’ title but 36 points adrift from the No. 8 Toyota drivers in the standings with just 39 points available. Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovanazzi are 31 points back in the No. 51. Thus, Nicklas Nielsen says he and his teammates are forced to take a wait and see approach to the race.

“I think under the circumstances here it’s quite difficult for us, like it was in Japan,” he told RACER. “We have to push a lot to keep up with the others now, which is making it harder for us on the tires.

“In terms of lap time, there isn’t a big difference between the two compounds available (from Michelin). In the race, I think we will see teams change between them. We saw yesterday that some used hards, some mediums, some mixed. For most of the race, though, I think we will see most cars use the hard tires.

“It’s going to be difficult for either car to do anything in terms of the championship,” he admitted when asked about the No. 50’s chances of fighting for the title. “Especially for us, the chances of winning are very slim. We will have to see where we are after a couple of hours. If the other car is far ahead, that’s how it will end, but if there is a chance for us we will go for it.”

Hartley wins Toyota shootout for WEC Bahrain 8H pole

Toyota Gazoo Racing locked out the front row for Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, the final race of the FIA World Endurance Championship season. Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi went head to head for pole, with Hartley setting the better lap of the …

Crucially, with a point for pole, the No. 8 crew now sit 16 points ahead of the No. 7 trio and Hartley and his crewmates Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa have edged ever closer to the drivers’ title.

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“It’s for the championship!” exclaimed the delighted Hartley. “I had a difficult qualifying in Fuji. And here it felt like I left something on the table but it was clean — nobody is going to do a perfect lap. The car felt awesome.

“We were one of the only cars to qualify on mediums because everyone is so worried about tire deg here. We think we can make them work in the race, if not it could be tricky for us. Sebastien (Buemi) will start tomorrow’s race — he has Turn 1 to think about.”

On the second row of the grid, a head-turning early 1m47.265s flyer from Alex Lynn was good enough to ensure the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was the fastest LMDh prototype in the session. The Caddy will start third, ahead of the fastest of the Porsche 963s, the No. 6, which will line up fourth.

“I think it was a really positive day,” Lynn said. “Quickest in Free Practice 3, long-run pace looked really strong and consolidated with P3 in qualifying. Really happy for Cadillac Racing.

“The main thing I think is we’re quick on one lap and we’re quick on the long run. I’m proud of our team and motivated to have a good day tomorrow. I’m excited — I think we’re going to have a good one and challenge for the podium.”

It was a tough qualifying for the championship-contending Ferraris, the No. 50 qualifying ahead of the No. 51 in fifth and sixth respectively, both cars over a second off the pole time.

Tom Blomqvist made United Autosports ORECA sing under the lights. Motorsport Images

LMP2 qualifying saw IndyCar-bound Tom Blomqvist boss the session, setting a 1m52.290s to take pole by 0.2s in the No. 23 United Autosports ORECA. Blomqvist’s eventual best time came with three minutes to go, improving on his previous best of 1m52.863s, which was already good enough to put him on provisional pole.

“Fantastic job by the guys — we had some work to do after yesterday, and the No. 23 crew have really put it together. Credit to them,” said Blomqvist. “It’s a pleasure to drive a well-handling race car in qualifying conditions. Really enjoyable, I couldn’t have asked for much more.

“That’s two poles for me this season, and Olly [Jarvis] got the pole in Sebring at the first race of the year. Unfortunately, we’ve had some bad luck along the way in the races, and the championship hasn’t worked out the way we hoped … but tomorrow, we’ll go for the win!”

Joining the No. 23 on the front row will be the No. 36 Alpine ORECA of Charles Milesi, who pushed hard but couldn’t quite edge Blomqvist with his late 1m52.561s. The No. 31 Team WRT ORECA took third, pushing the Vector Sport example, which held the top spot early after Gabriel Aubry’s first push lap, to fourth.

It was a tricky session for Louis Deletraz in the championship-leading No. 41 WRT ORECA. The No. 41 will start the race 10th with a time 1.2s off pole.

A big lap from Sarah Bovy netted the last-ever GTE pole for the Iron Dames team. Motorsport Images

The No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR 19 will start the final GTE race tomorrow from pole position after a stellar 1m58.692s tour of the circuit from Sarah Bovy.

“Once again she did it — we are very proud of her,” said Michelle Gatting, Bovy’s teammate in the Porsche. “It’s important for what we are doing with this project. It’s emotional because of the last race of GTE. It’s not easy — we showed great pace and let’s hope we can finish it.”

Bovy’s time, set with just under five minutes to go, was challenged in the final minutes of the session, but nobody could snatch the top spot from the Belgian, who finishes the season with three pole positions to her name.

Liam Talbot, the late addition to D’Station Racing’s driver lineup, came closest with a 1m58.982s. The time came on his final flying lap, vaulting the No. 777 Vantage from fourth to a spot on the front row.

Talbot’s lap dropped the ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin to third on the grid after Ahmad Al Harthy’s efforts. Takeshi Kimura steered the No. 57 Ferrari to fourth.

Ben Keating, who briefly sat at the top early in the session, will start tomorrow’s race from fifth in the title-winning No. 33 Corvette Racing C8.R.

“More than where we qualified, I’m happy with the lap time.,” Keating said. “That was one second quicker than anything than did in my qualifying simulation. There is so much tire degradation here that it’s a balance between taking care of the tire — because we have to race on these same tires — and trying to hit the peak of the tire.

“I think the reason I was able to put that lap together was because it was my third one and on the peak of the tire. I kept trying to repeat it, and I couldn’t. It just wasn’t there in the tire. It’s really interesting how my two laps that were closest to that were seven-tenths of a second off. It’s worth that much time. I’m happy with the time but also with the result. Tyler (Neff, race engineer) said before qualifying that he thought a top-five result was possible, and he nailed it.”

Tomorrow’s 8 Hours of Bahrain will start at 2pm local time.

RESULTS

Momentum building for Porsche Penske WEC program at year’s end

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s World Endurance Championship team is heading into the 2023 season finale and the offseason with a spring in its step, hoping to build on its strong showing at Fuji last time out. In Japan, Porsche led more than half the …

In Japan, Porsche led more than half the race, its No. 6 963 fending off the Toyota attack until the fourth set of pit stops were completed. It marked the first time that an LMDh-spec prototype truly looked capable of taking a win on pace over Toyota and Ferrari’s LMH-spec challengers this season.

This is something that Porsche hopes will continue into this weekend’s eight-hour finale and next season. No. 6 driver Kevin Estre says the performance at Fuji was a real boost for everyone involved in the program.

“It was promising,” he told RACER. “Laurens (Vanthoor) made a great start and gave me the car in the lead with a gap. We knew Toyota was coming but I made no mistakes. I enjoyed leading but it was stressful because if I made any mistakes, they would pass and win it. It took a lot of strength mentally.

“For this week, I think this circuit is going to be OK for us. There is a lot of straight-line braking and we have been strong there for the last few races.”

Andre Lotterer echoed his teammate’s thoughts.

“It was very encouraging at Fuji — it’s always good to be on the podium knowing you could have done better,” he said. “Still, we need more performance but we are operating and executing very well.”

Porsche’s steps in improving the car’s impact on tire life will play a big role in allowing it to compete in Bahrain, on what is a notoriously abrasive circuit.

“This is a race about degradation, and mostly on the rear tires,” Estre said. “We are top three in that category, but Toyota is the best. This race will be won in that department, but if we have a good balance and execute well there’s no reason we can’t challenge them.

“We understand our car better — we control the ride better and understand the aero balance better. Since Monza, we have been better on tire life but obviously, if we are three-tenths off we will be nowhere.

“We have made a lot of steps on setup throughout the season and hopefully, the testing we do in the offseason is going to help us be on a level with Toyota and Ferrari.”

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Porsche has also been handed a 7kg weight break for this weekend’s race as part of the first “Platform BoP” change of the season, meaning Cadillac’s V-Series.R will also benefit from the tweak.

Platform BoP changes differ from the standard BoP changes that have been made at various points throughout the season. A platform change means all cars running to the same ruleset will receive an identical adjustment, rather than an individual tweak.

This type of change has been introduced this season to coincide with the first wave of LMDh prototypes joining the championship. It is in place to create an even playing field for the LMDh and LMH cars and reduce the temptation to sandbag. While helpful, Lotterer doesn’t believe this adjustment will make an enormous difference in terms of outright performance.

“It will bring us a little closer, but it’s not much — maybe one-tenth with those kilos. It’s hard to predict,” he said. “This is the first time on track here for us with the car, so we have no historical data to pull from. We are just hoping to do better than Fuji.”

Porsche is focusing its development efforts on reliability to bolster its prospects in the endurance rounds. Motorsport Images

What may prove a significant difference, however, is Porsche’s raft of upgrades for the 2024 season. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s managing director Jonathan Diuguid told RACER the planned improvements are all reliability-focused and should improve its chances in the longer races.

“We adhere to a very clearly defined process,” he explained. “All of the updates we are requesting and discussing with the FIA, ACO and IMSA are for reliability. After running the car for a year we have exposed things we didn’t see in testing and our goal is to have reliable cars that can perform at the highest level at longer races like Le Mans. And Le Mans showed we weren’t prepared for that.

“We aren’t focusing on performance, we are focused on things like driver cooling and we have had driveline issues we are trying to address. We are also working on updates to components on the hybrid system that we are working on with our partners at Bosch. They are bringing quite a big update for the MGU that every LMDh car will get.

“It’s improving those areas that have taken us out of races or severely reduced our performance.”

Leaving reliability to one side, Year 1 of the 963’s life in the WEC its outright performance hasn’t been strong enough to allow it to gun for wins consistently. Despite this, Diuguid reiterated that Porsche hasn’t been pushing the rule-makers for permission to make performance upgrades, due to the BoP system and defined performance window that the category and its ruleset are governed by. The 963 has shown race-winning potential in IMSA’s GTP class, winning three races during its debut season.

“I think the ruleset is clearly defined with what the performance target for the LMDh cars has been,” he said. “The targets, whether that’s testing in the wind tunnel or the minimum weight, have been met, so our focus has been on what we can control. We are involved in discussions, like all manufacturers are, on the BoP process and those working groups have been fruitful.

“Hence our focus is reliability,” he continued. “The process is you bring a request, a justification as to why you need the request, either explaining your failure or showing the issues you’ve had. It’s an open dialogue and a process that every manufacturer goes through.

“It’s difficult but it’s up to the sanctioning bodies to determine what they feel is a performance upgrade and what isn’t. It’s not an argument, it’s a presentation of what we want to change. It’s up to them to come back and say, ‘If you want to bring this upgrade, you need to go to the wind tunnel.’ It’s been quite open.”

Over the winter, Porsche will continue to gather data and refine its package ahead of its sophomore campaign with the car. It has tests scheduled for multiple key circuits, including Qatar and Daytona.

Lynn puts Cadillac ahead in third Bahrain WEC practice

Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R topped the time sheets in the final practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, with Alex Lynn setting a 1m49.512s to go almost half a second quicker than the other 11 Hypercars in the field. “We had …

“We had a strong day yesterday, P3 behind the two Toyotas,” Lynn noted. “Everyone has played their tire strategy differently, but I think we are in a good spot. I think one compound is significantly quicker over a lap, so how qualifying goes will depend on tire choice and how aggressive people want to be.”

Second in the order was the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari, with Antonio Fuoco putting the 499P in the top three on pace for the first time. The car, with its 1m50.010s from the Italian, sat at the top of the timing screens early in the session before Lynn set his flyer with 34 minutes remaining.

The No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche slotted in third, 0.7s off the Cadillac after completing 30 laps in the heat. The sister Ferrari ended up fourth, while the two Toyotas, which were fast throughout Thursday’s running, ended up eighth and ninth.

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In LMP2, the No. 23 United Autosports ORECA took over from the team’s No. 22 sister car as the quickest car in the category, after a 1m53.661s from Tom Blomqvist. That time was 0.028s quicker than the No. 9 PREMA ORECA which finished second fastest, 0.2s up on the No. 28 JOTA ORECA which completed the top three.

In GTE Am, the headline was the positive news from Project 1 AO this morning. Its No. 56 “Rexy” Porsche 911 RSR 19 was repaired overnight and set the fastest time. Matteo Cairoli set a 1m58.214s in the opening minutes session in his five-lap run behind the wheel, which was good enough to top the class.

The team had originally thought chassis damage from Gunnar Jeanette’s rear-end impact before pit in in FP2 left the car beyond immediate repair. However, a full inspection later that night revealed that the damage wasn’t as severe as initially feared and the car was almost ready to run early this morning.

Qualifying is up next, at 4:15pm local time.

RESULTS