Bahrain WEC: Toyota #7 wins race to claim title
The #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez won the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain, beating the sister #8 car by over a minute in the winner-takes-all decider.
Watch: 8 Hours of Bahrain - Race highlights
The #8 Toyota was never in the hunt with the 0.54s performance penalty it was carrying under the LMP1 system of success handicaps. The gap between the two TS050 Hybrids would have been more than a lap but for a safety car period just after the halfway mark.
The neutralisation of the race all but wiped out a lead of just over a minute for the #7 Toyota.
Buemi briefly looked as though he might be able to mount a challenge after taking back the controls of the #8 early in the fifth hour, but dropped away from Conway during the second stint on a set of new Michelins.
Kobayashi and Nakajima took over their respective mounts for the run to the flag in the final race for the TS050 at the end of the LMP1 era, the margin between them standing at 1m04s when the chequered flag fell.
Conway said: "I feel good. It's been a long season with all that's going on in the world. To clinch this title is a huge credit to my teammates – they made me look good. It was a tough race, but we did what we had to do."
LMP2: JOTA claims one-two finish United dramas
The JOTA Sport squad finished one-two in LMP2, the Oreca 07 entered under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner coming out on top in a thrilling battle with the sister car run under the team's own flag.
Gabriel Aubry barged past Antonio Felix da Costa with 10 minutes of the race to run to seal victory, together with Will Stevens and Ho-Pin Tung, on what looks certain to be the Jackie Chan-branded entry's final WEC race.
Da Costa, who shared the JOTA entry with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez, had sneaked ahead of the sister car at the final round of pits but couldn't pull away from Aubry. When the reigning Formula E champion was baulked by a GTE Am Ferrari, Aubry made his bold move at Turn 10 and then sealed the position into Turn 11.
The Racing Team Nederland Oreca shared by Nyck de Vries, Giedo van der Garde and Frits van Eerd took third place. United Autosports, which wrapped up the P2 title with Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson at the Le Mans 24 Hours in September, ended up nearly half a minute behind in fourth after being in hunt for the first five hours.
An undisclosed fuel glitch, which meant Paul di Resta was slow into the pits at the same stop that he took a five-second penalty garnered by Albuquerque for causing a collision, dropped them out of contention.
GTE: Porsche wins, Aston earns title
Porsche finished one-two in GTE Pro as Aston Martin duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen claimed the drivers' title to go with the manufacturers' crown that the British manufacturer sealed at Le Mans.
Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen took victory in the factory Porsche 911 RSR by 2.8s from the sister car of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz after leading for much of the duration. A distant third place went to the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of David Rigon and Miguel Molina, who ended up more than a minute behind the Porsches.
Thiim and Sorensen were in the hunt at the beginning of the race until losing time in a full-course yellow virtual safety car and then dropped out of contention with a brake issue that afflicted all four Vantage GTEs in the race. They eventually ended up two laps in arrears in fifth place, which was more than enough to give them the crown ahead of Maxime Martin, who finished fourth in the sister Aston with Richard Westbrook.
James Calado lost an outside chance of the title when his teammate in their AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, Daniel Serra, tagged a GTE Am and suffered a broken wheel.
The GTE Am title went to Emmanuel Collard, Nicklas Nielsen and Francois Perrodo, who overhauled an eight-point deficit to the drivers of the TF Sport Aston Martin. Second place behind the Project 1 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister, Larry ten Voorde and Egidio Perfetti allowed them to leapfrog Jonny Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc in the final points.
The Aston drivers finished down in eighth after losing time to a change of front brakes at the start of the final hour.
Race results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 263 | |
2 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 263 | |
3 | 37 |
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 247 | 16 Laps |
4 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 247 | 16 Laps |
5 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 247 | 16 Laps |
6 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 247 | 16 Laps |
7 | 36 |
Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 246 | 17 Laps |
8 | 92 |
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 235 | 28 Laps |
9 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 235 | 28 Laps |
10 | 71 |
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 235 | 28 Laps |
11 | 97 |
Richard Westbrook
Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 234 | 29 Laps |
12 | 95 |
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 233 | 30 Laps |
13 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Larry ten Voorde Jörg Bergmeister |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 232 | 31 Laps |
14 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 232 | 31 Laps |
15 | 88 |
Khaled Al Qubaisi
Jaxon Evans Marco Holzer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 232 | 31 Laps |
16 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 232 | 31 Laps |
17 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Alessio Picariello Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 232 | 31 Laps |
18 | 57 |
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 231 | 32 Laps |
19 | 51 |
James Calado
Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 231 | 32 Laps |
20 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera Dennis Olsen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 231 | 32 Laps |
21 | 90 |
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 231 | 32 Laps |
22 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 231 | 32 Laps |
23 | 62 |
Bonamy Grimes
Kei Cozzolino Colin Noble Jr. |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 231 | 32 Laps |
24 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 231 | 32 Laps |
View full results |
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