Bahrain 8h WEC: #7 Toyota wins title, clash ruins GTE Pro battle

Having extended their lead in the championship to 16 points with pole position in Friday’s qualifying, the crew of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid only needed to take the chequered flag as a classified finisher to become the first-ever champions in WEC's Hypercar era.

Although victory remained out of reach in the season-closing Bahrain 8 Hours, a runner-up result was enough for Kobayashi, Lopez and Conway to complete the Le Mans 24 Hours/WEC title double for the first time in their WEC careers.

Conway led the early stages of the race from pole position after the fast-charging #36 Alpine A480-Gibson dropped out of contention, but was asked by Toyota to hand over the position to a faster Buemi at the start of the second hour.

The two Toyotas would not be involved in a wheel-to-wheel fight for the remainder of the eight-hour contest, with the gap between the two cars seven seconds at the finishing line.

The retiring Nakajima took the chequered flag in the winning #8 Toyota, bowing out of the championship in style with three overall successes at Le Mans and the 2018/19 LMP1 title.

Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao finished six laps down in third in the #36 Alpine, with early technical woes preventing the French manufacturer from putting a consistent challenge to the Toyotas.

Although Lapierre was able to pass both Conway at Buemi at the start with a breathtaking start from third on the grid, his lead turned out to be short-lived with both the Toyotas repassing him before the end of lap 10.

Lapierre had fallen nearly 30 seconds behind the leading Hypercars when he suddenly slowed down on lap 25 with what was diagnosed to be a gearbox issue. A lengthy trip to the Alpine garage followed, ensuring Toyota ended the season with a perfect run of six victories in as many races.

Ferrari wins GTE Pro title after controversial finish

Ferrari duo Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado provisionally clinched the drivers title in GTE Pro in controversial fashion after the Italian driver refused to follow race direction’s order to let Porsche’s Michael Christensen through following a late clash between the two.

After a topsy-turvy battle between the only two marques in the class, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Christensen, Neel Jani and Kevin Estre was leading the race going into the final hour.

But Pier Guidi nudged Christensen into a spin at the final corner moments after they were lapped by the United LMP2 car, leaving the Porsche down in second position.

Race Control ordered Pier Guidi to hand the position back to Christensen within a few laps of the incident, but he took the chequered flag in first position to provisionally secure Ferrari both championships in GTE Pro.

Prior to Ferrari and Porsche’s late-lap clash, Calado and Estre traded positions multiple times in the first two stints of the race, before the German manufacturer took the advantage by pitting a lap under the first Full Course Yellow in the second hour.

Ferrari struck back just before the halfway point of the race with a quicker stop during another FCY period, but Estre was able to charge past Calado under braking for Turn 1 in the sixth hour. Christensen and Pier Guidi took the battle to the final hour after taking over from their respective teammates.

Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina finished third in class in the second of the two Ferraris, while Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki rounded out the class in the #91 Porsche.

WRT takes LMP2 title with victory

WRT’s dream first year in prototype ranks continued as it clinched the title in WEC’s ultra-competitive LMP2 class, adding to its success in the European Le Mans Series.

Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Robin Frijns secured the crown following their third successive victory of the season in the #31 Oreca 07-Gibson.

WRT qualified poorly for the second race in a row but Habsburg was able to charge through the field from seventh on the grid in the opening stages, before Frijns passed Racing Team Nederland’s Frits van Eerd for the lead in the third hour en route to WRT's third win of the season.

The two JOTA Orecas finished second and third in the LMP2 class, with Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez having the advantage at the end of the eighth hour in the #38 entry.

This was after da Costa passed Tom Blomqvist with a bold move at Turn 1 in the final 10 minutes of the race.

Blomqvist, Stoffel Vandoorne and Sean Gelael headed to the final Bahrain race second in the standings in the #38 JOTA, but needed to finish ahead of WRT to have a shot at the crown.

The Pro-Am title went to Racing Team Nederland and its owner van Eerd after it finished first in class and sixth among all LMP2 entrants.

Van Eerd was sharing the car with ex-Formula 1 driver Giedo van der Garde - who took the overall LMP2 lead at the start - and Job van Uitert, but neither of his teammates were in contention for the title having missed July's Monza round.

AF Corse triumphs in GTE Am

AF Corse successfully defended its GTE Am title after Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera eased to a fourth victory of the season in the #83 Ferrari.

TF Sport Aston Martin was the only team that could have denied AF Corse the crown in Bahrain, but a puncture on the opening lap - caused by contact with the #98 Vantage GTE - left Ben Keating, Dylan Pereira and Felipe Fraga with a mountain to climb in the remainder of the race.

A broken steering rack, result of a separate collision with the #54 AF Corse Ferrari in the fifth hour, dealt the final blow to the title hopes of the #33 crew.

With TF Sport on the backfoot from the very beginning of the race, Matt Campbell, Christian Ried and Jaxon Evans finished second in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, with Egidio Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli and Riccardo Pera completing the podium spots in the #56 Project 1 Porsche. 

Bahrain 8 Hours - Race results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Gap	Pits
1	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	247		8
2	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	247	7.351	8
3	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	241	6 Laps	8
4	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	240	7 Laps	11
5	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	240	7 Laps	12
6	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	240	7 Laps	11
7	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	240	7 Laps	11
8	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	238	9 Laps	10
9	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	238	9 Laps	10
10	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	238	9 Laps	10
11	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	237	10 Laps	12
12	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	237	10 Laps	9
13	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	236	11 Laps	10
14	Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici	Oreca 07	LMP2	235	12 Laps	10
15	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	233	14 Laps	8
16	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	233	14 Laps	9
17	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	233	14 Laps	9
18	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	231	16 Laps	9
19	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	230	17 Laps	9
20	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	229	18 Laps	8
21	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	229	18 Laps	9
22	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	229	18 Laps	9
23	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	228	19 Laps	9
24	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	228	19 Laps	9
25	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	227	20 Laps	8
26	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	227	20 Laps	8
27	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	225	22 Laps	8
28	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	224	23 Laps	7
29	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	223	24 Laps	8
	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	128	119 Laps	7
	Khaled Al Qubaisi Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	90	157 Laps	3
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