Toyota number eight team take title with dominant Bahrain win

Toyota’s trio of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won the season-ending Eight Hours of Bahrain to secure back-to-back Hypercar World Endurance Championship titles.

Leading a Toyota 1-2 finish, the number eight Toyota of Buemi, Hartley, and Hirakawa dominated proceedings from the opening lap onward. In eight hours, they completed 249 laps and won by 47.516 seconds.

The Japanese manufacturer, which had weathered the storm through the collapse of LMP1 and the birth of the new Le Mans Hypercar class, had already wrapped up the manufacturers’ championship in the previous race at Fuji.

In second place was the number seven Toyota of Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, and Kamui Kobayashi, which had to recover from a crash on the opening lap of the race when Conway was hit at turn one by the number two Cadillac of Earl Bamber.

Hours 1-2

Buemi started on pole position in the number eight Toyota GR010 and has suffered no drama throughout the course of his opening stint. He now leads by over 30 seconds, with the number 51 Ferrari-AF Corse 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi running in second.

While Buemi has enjoyed a worry-free time behind the wheel, Mike Conway had to claw his way from the rear of the Hypercar field to pull the number seven Toyota back up to third place.

Conway started second but was hit from behind by the number two Cadillac of Earl Bamber, which locked up into turn one on cold tyres and drove into the back of Conway. The Toyota managed to avoid suffering significant damage, and Conway was able to get up to third place in less than an hour, capped off by overtaking the number 50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina and the number 38 Jota Porsche of Will Stevens in quick succession.

Unfortunately, the two-time Le Mans winner Bamber received a one-minute penalty stop for causing a collision, and is running outside the top ten in class.

The rest of the top ten features the two factory-run Penske Porsches of Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen, the Proton Competition Porsche of Neel Jani, and the two Peugeot 9X8s of Loic Duval and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Stevens has had a strong opening stint of his own and is still fourth, leading the LMDh-spec Hypercars, ahead of Molina in fifth.

Vector Sport, the team behind the prospective Isotta Fraschini privateer Hypercar entry, was firmly in control of LMP2 until the top of the hour when it was given a 90-second stop-and-hold penalty for a technical infringement, believed to be related to minimum tyre pressure.

At the time of the penalty the number nine Prema of Juan Manuel Correa was running in second place, directly ahead of the number 31 Team WRT Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg.

LMP2 class pole sitter Tom Blomqvist was caught up in a first-lap collision of his own – he hit the Vanwall of Tristan Vautier in turn two and both cars spun to the back of the field.

Early on the most entertaining action on the track had been between the Bronze-rated drivers in the GTE Am class, with close-quarters racing and all four makes looking reasonably competitive. After two hours, the number 60 Iron Lynx Porsche was leading, by virtue of starting the race with Matteo Cressoni, a Silver-rated professional driver.

Cressoni had started in place of Iron Lynx’s gentleman driver, Claudio Schiavoni, who was ill and should be expected to drive after nightfall once the temperatures have decreased.

By the end of the second hour, Sarah Bovy was second in GTE Am aboard the number 85 Iron Dames Porsche, and Liam Talbot is third in the D’station Racing Aston Martin.

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Hours 2-4

Brendon Hartley took over from Sebastien Buemi after a two-hour opening stint, and Hartley maintained the leading Toyota’s advantage – now up to over 40 seconds.

Thanks to his steady pace, the number seven Toyota recovered from being spun out in a first-lap crash to run in second place, with Toyota’s driver and team principal Kamui Kobayashi now driving after taking over from starting driver Mike Conway.

Over the previous two hours, James Calado and Yifei Ye had a stirring battle for third place, but it was Calado in the number 51 Ferrari-AF Corse 499P who held a slim lead over Ye in the privately-run, number 38 Jota Porsche after four hours.

Antonio Fuoco ran fifth in the number 50 Ferrari, ahead of Kevin Estre in the number six Penske Porsche.

All 36 cars were still running after four hours of racing, and there had only been one, very brief Full Course Yellow for debris on the racing line at turn one to break up what had otherwise been a green race since the opening lap.

Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis worked together to bring the number 23 United Autosports Oreca back to the LMP2 class lead, after Blomqvist was collected in a first-lap collision of his own.

By half distance, Jarvis led the number nine Prema Oreca of Bent Viscaal, then the number 31 Team WRT Oreca of Robin Frijns in third.

The state of play in GTE Am also remained unchanged. Iron Lynx’s number 60 Porsche was still leading by a commanding margin, but the team had not yet turned the controls over to gentleman driver Claudio Schiavoni.

Alessio Picariello instead drove the leading car, with the sister car, the number 85 Iron Dames Porsche of Sarah Bovy, second and chasing the all-female team’s first WEC class victory. Casper Stevenson is third in the D’station Racing Aston Martin.

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Hours 5-6

Ryo Hirakawa took over from Brendon Hartley, and the new McLaren F1 development driver continued to build the leading Toyota’s advantage.

He had a comfortable 50-second lead over the number seven Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez in second place, who himself has a 50-second buffer to third place.

But third place was being hotly contested between Antonio Felix da Costa in the privateer number 38 Jota Porsche and the number 50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen.

Even after Da Costa received a drive-through penalty for an unsafe rejoin – which put him driver right in the path of the GTE Am class leaders – the gold Porsche kept up with the two factory-run Ferraris. At the six hour mark, Nielsen was less than half a second up on Da Costa in third.

Antonio Giovinazzi was fifth in the number 51 Ferrari, followed by Andre Lotterer in the number five Penske Porsche, and Nico Müller in the number 94 Peugeot, some distance further back but in seventh.

There was a significant development in GTE Am. The all-women’s Iron Dames team was closing on a historic victory in the class. With two hours to go, Rahel Frey was leading in the number 85 Porsche 911.

She led the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Tomonobu Fujii by 15 seconds. Daniel Mancinelli was running second in the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, but Mancinelli received a drive-through penalty for colliding with LMP2 class leader Bent Viscaal into turn one, and dropped to third.

Iron Lynx owner Claudio Schiavoni was not fit to drive his number 60 Porsche at all, let alone to the minimum two hours and 20 minutes required of him – so the team were forced to retire the car, the first and only retirement of the race up to that point.

In LMP2, WRT continued to enjoy total control with its two Orecas running first and second in class, led by the number 31 piloted by Ferdinand Habsburg, 20 seconds ahead of the number 41 of Robert Kubica.

Save for some drama in a pit stop when Kubica’s seatbelt wasn’t properly fastened, the number 41 of Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade had run a fault-free race and appeared to be closing in on the final WEC LMP2 championship.

Prema’s Juan Manuel Correa ran third in the number 63 Oreca. The number 23 United Autosports car, which was leading at the four-hour mark, received a 90-second stop-and-hold penalty for running below the minimum tyre pressure – similar to the penalty given to Vector Sport earlier in the race.

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Hours 6-8

Toyota continued to dominate over the final two hours of the race, and the season, with the number eight car enjoying a comfortable advantage over the sister number seven car behind.

Hirakawa would lead over the line at the end of the eighth hour to seal the win and the championship for for the number eight car, 47 seconds ahead of the sister car after 249 laps of racing.

Buemi and Hartley won their fourth premier class championships in WEC, including previous honours in the LMP1 class. For Hirakawa, it’s his second championship in as many seasons as a Toyota Hypercar driver.

A nail-biting chase for the final podium place saw the number 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen hold off the number 38 Jota Porsche of Will Stevens, Antonio Felix da Costa and Yifei Ye by less than a second.

It wasn’t without fireworks – the two Ferraris had a very silly incident down at turn eight when Fuoco tried to pass the number 51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi from a long way back. Fuoco missed his braking point and ran wide, then clashed wheels with his team mate before eventually getting through.

And Stevens may not have missed out on the podium were it not for a costly drive-through penalty for Da Costa during his stint.

A sensational pass from Kevin Estre elevated the number six Penske Porsche up to fifth place while the Le Mans-winning number 51 Ferrari of Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi slumped to sixth.

The all-female Iron Dames team made history as the number 85 Porsche of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting held on for the final GTE Am class win.

They became the first all-women’s crew to win a race in any class of FIA World Endurance Championship racing and all three drivers joined Lilou Wadoux, who became the first individual woman to win the GTE Am class earlier this year at Spa-Francorchamps.

Iron Dames won ahead of the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Tomonobu Fujii, Casper Stevenson and Liam Talbot who finished in second.

Stevenson chased down a 15-second deficit to Gatting in the final stint, and closed to within two seconds. But Gatting was able to keep her composure around faster traffic, draw back ahead and take the win by just 5.5 seconds.

In third was the number 98 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli which held onto the final podium place after a drive-through penalty for hitting an LMP2 car earlier in the race.

This was the final race for the GTE category of grand touring cars. After 12 years on the World Endurance Championship tour, GTE will be replaced by the customer-driven LMGT3 Am class in 2024.

Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade clinched the LMP2 championship for WRT with victory in this, the final race for the LMP2 category as a full-time class of the World Endurance Championship.

WRT took a 1-2 finish as the number 41 Oreca 07 of Kubica, Deletraz and Andrade led the number 31 of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Sean Gelael. The two WRT cars changed places after a slow final pit stop for the 31 crew cost Frijns the lead with 35 minutes left.

Team Jota’s number 28 Oreca of Pietro Fittipaldi, Oscar Rasmussen and David Heinemeier-Hansson finished third in class.

LMP2 will continue to feature at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but with the growth of the Hypercar class, the pro-am prototype class will only be seen on a full-time basis in the ACO’s regional series and the IMSA Sportscar Championship.

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WEC Eight Hours of Bahrain race results

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Laps
1	8	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	249
2	7	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez	249
3	50	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	249
4	38	Hypercar (H)	Hertz Team JOTA	Porsche 963	Antonio Felix Da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye	249
5	6	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	248
6	51	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	248
7	5	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	247
8	94	Hypercar (H)	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller	247
9	93	Hypercar (H)	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne	247
10	99	Hypercar (H)	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Gianmaria Bruni/Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani	247
11	2	Hypercar (H)	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook	246
12	41	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica	238
13	31	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns	238
14	28	LMP2	JOTA	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Heinemeier Hansson/Oliver Rasmussen/Pietro Fittipaldi	238
15	9	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Bent Viscaal/Juan Manuel Correa/Andrea Caldarelli	238
16	63	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Doriane Pin/Daniil Kvyat/Mathias Beche	237
17	34	LMP2	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski/Albert Costa/Fabio Scherer	237
18	36	LMP2	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Matthieu Vaxiviere/Charles Milesi/Julienal Canal	237
19	23	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Joshua Pierson/Giedo van der Garde/Oliver Jarvis	237
20	22	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Philip Hanson/Ben Hanley/Frederick Lubin	237
21	35	LMP2	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Andre Negrão/Olli Caldwell/Memo Rojas	236
22	85	LMGTE Am	Iron Dames	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey	232
23	777	LMGTE Am	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii	232
24	98	LMGTE Am	Northwest AMR	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas	232
25	54	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	232
26	57	LMGTE Am	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Kei Cozzolino	232
27	77	LMGTE Am	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer	231
28	33	LMGTE Am	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone	231
29	86	LMGTE Am	GR Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Riccardo Pera	231
30	83	LMGTE Am	Richard Mille AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Luis Perez Companc/Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux	231
31	56	LMGTE Am	Project 1 – AO	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Efrin Castro/Guilherme Oliveira/Matteo Cairoli	230
32	21	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Simon Mann/Julien Piguet/Ulysse de Pauw	229
33	4	Hypercar	Floyd Vanwall Racing Team	Vanwall Vandervell 680	Esteban Guerrieri/Tristan Vautier/Joao Paulo de OIiveira	217
34	25	LMGTE Am	ORT by TF	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood	217
35	10	LMP2	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen/Gabriel Aubry/Matthias Kaiser	216
36	60	LMGTE Am	Iron Lynx	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello	163

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