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Autosport

Sport

WEC Bahrain: #8 Toyota claims title with victory, Iron Dames wins last GTE race

Toyota WEC Iron Dames GTE Porsche Ferrari Mike Conway Antonio Fuoco Earl Bamber Bahrain

Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa were never threatened in the eight-hour bonus points title-decider, the crew of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid leading every race outside of the pitstop cycles to successfully defend their 2022 crown.

The outcome of the contest was effectively decided at the start when Cadillac’s Earl Bamber locked up going into Turn 1 after starting from third, turning around the #7 Toyota of Mike Conway that was trying to consolidate second place behind the pole-sitting #8 car of Buemi.

Although Conway was able to get back up to third just an hour into the race, with Kamui Kobayashi propelling the team to second when taking over from the Brit, the #7 crew never had the pace to close down the 30s gap built by Buemi in the opening two stints of the race.

In fact, Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa ended up increasing their advantage at the front of the pack over the remainder of the race, scoring their second win of the season by a commanding margin of 47s to celebrate their title in style.

It was the fourth championship success for both Hartley and Buemi, and second for Hirakawa, with the latter continuing his 100% title record after joining the series in 2022 to replace Kazuki Nakajima.

Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez had to concede defeat in the championship fight despite winning more races than the sister crew, four compared to two, with their retirement in the double-points Le Mans 24 Hours costing them a chance to repeat their 2021 success.

Start action, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, #2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook, #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, André Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Ferrari emerged as Toyota’s closest rival in a race where tyre degradation played a major role in determining the pecking order, with Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen finishing third in best of the 499P LMH cars.

That was after the two Ferraris rubbed wheel in the penultimate hour, with Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi making contact shortly after the Italian gained a position by pitting a lap later in the #51 car.

Fuoco was eventually able to pull away to put Ferrari back on the podium after a disappointing showing at Fuji, while Pier Guidi slipped to sixth in the car he shared with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Fourth place went to the independent Jota team following an impressive showing from Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye in their customer Porsche 963 LMDh.

Jota ran as high as third in the eight-hour finale before a drive-through penalty dented the squad’s hopes of scoring a maiden podium in the Hypercar class. Da Costa, who will leave WEC next year to focus on Porsche’s Formula E programme, was deemed to have rejoined the track in an unsafe manner after running wide into Turn 1 in the sixth hour, picking up a penalty.

Stevens hunted down Fuoco in the final hour after taking over the car from da Costa, but fell less than a second short of nicking third spot off the Ferrari driver.

Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor finished further back in fifth in the best of the two factory Porsche Penske 963 LMDh cars.

Vanthoor was delayed at the start by the collision between Bamber and Conway, dropping to ninth and near the rear of the Hypercar field, but the #6 crew were able to gradually recover from the setback to finish behind the customer Jota.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi (Photo by: Ferrari)

The sister #5 car of Michael Christensen, Dane Cameron and Frederic Makowiecki was classified seventh, behind the #51 Ferrari, after picking up two five-second penalties for full-course yellow infringements.

It was another lacklustre outing for Peugeot with the radical 9X8 that is due to receive a major upgrade next year, with the best of its two cars driven by Gustavo Menezes, Loic Duval and Nico Muller finishing two laps off the lead in eighth.

A drive-through penalty for breaking FCY rules left the sister #93 car of Mikkel Jensen, Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne ninth, ahead of the Proton Porsche of Neel Jani, Gianmaria Bruni and Harry Tincknell.

Cadillac could never recover from the 60-second stop/go penalty handed to Bamber for colliding with Conway’s Toyota at the start, consigning him and team-mates Richard Westbrook and Alex Lynn to 11th - three laps off the lead.

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

WRT triumphs in the LMP2

The last-ever LMP2 title in WEC went to WRT after Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade charged their way from 10th to score their third victory of the season in the #41 ORECA 07.

It was a 1-2 finish for the Belgian outfit, with Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Sean Gelael finishing nine seconds down in the sister #31 car.

The #41 crew arrived in Bahrain with a 33-point lead over the Le Mans 24-Hour winning Inter Europol team, with 39 available across qualifying and the race.

But Inter Europol never featured at the sharp end of the field, with a brief stoppage in the fourth hour with Albert Costa ending any chances of a shock swing in the title fight.

Costa, Jakub Smiechowski and Fabio Scherer were eventually classified sixth in the #34 ORECA.

The final spot on the podium went to the #28 JOTA of Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen and David Heinemeier-Hansson, which like the two WRT cars completed the race with 10 pitstops as opposed to 11 for the majority of the LMP2 field.

The early parts of the race was led by the Vector team after Gabriel Aubry was able to avoid the opening lap pile-up triggered by the #22 United Autosports ORECA of Phil Hanson crashing into the Vanwall LMH car of Tristan Vautier. Vautier was collected by polesitter Tom Blomqvist, who had already lost positions after running wide at Turn 1 in the sister #23 United Autosports.

But a surprise victory for Vector wasn’t to be, with the team hit with a 90-second stop/go penalty for running low tyre pressures than allowed. The #10 ORECA would eventually retire from the race with a throttle issue in the final hour.

Vector’s troubles allowed the #23 United car to incredibly retake the lead, only for the same tyre pressure punishment to leave Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Joshua Pierson eighth in the final order.

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Iron Dames ends GTE era with win

The Iron Dames team claimed its maiden victory in the farewell WEC race for GTE cars, with Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey taking top honours in the #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Having finished second twice in 2022 while driving a Ferrari 488 GTE, Bovy, Gatting and Frey went one better in the WEC finale as they beat the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii, Casper Stevenson and Liam Talbot by 5s after starting from pole position.

The majority of the race was led by the sister Iron Lynx team, with both Alessio Picarellio and Matteo Cresini putting in some rapid stint behind the wheel of the #56 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

However, with gentleman racer Claudio Schiavoni feeling unwell and unable to get behind the wheel to complete the required 2h20m driving time for a bronze-rated driver, the team was forced to pull into the pits to retire the car at the end of the sixth hour.

This prompted Iron Dames to the lead, a position the all-female crew retained until the chequered flag was waved at 10pm local time.

The podium was completed by Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

Corvette trio Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone rounded off their title-winning season in seventh.

WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain - race results

Driver Info

Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Retirement	Points
1	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	249	-		7
2	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi J. Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	249	1 lap		7
3	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	249	+1'36.286 1'36.286	1'36.286	7
4	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	38	A. Felix da Costa W. Stevens Y. Yifei	Porsche 963	249	+1'37.248 1'37.248	0.962	8
5	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	6	K. Estre A. Lotterer L. Vanthoor	Porsche 963	248	+1 Lap 10.770	1 Lap	7
6	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	248	+1 Lap 12.951	2.181	7
7	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	5	D. Cameron M. Christensen F. Makowiecki	Porsche 963	247	2 laps		8
8	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	94	L. Duval G. Menezes N. Müller	Peugeot 9X8	247	+2 Laps 35.611	35.611	7
9	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	93	P. di Resta M. Jensen J. Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	247	+2 Laps 1'22.705	47.094	8
10	Proton Competition HYPERCAR	99	N. Jani G. Bruni H. Tincknell	Porsche 963	247	+2 Laps 1'29.034	6.329	8
11	CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR	2	E. Bamber A. Lynn R. Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	246	3 laps		8
12	TEAM WRT LMP2	41	R. Andrade R. Kubica L. Deletraz	Oreca 07	238	11 laps		10
13	TEAM WRT LMP2	31	S. Gelael F. Habsburg R. Frijns	Oreca 07	238	+11 Laps 50.236	50.236	10
14	Jota Sport LMP2	28	D. Heinemeier Hansson P. Fittipaldi O. Rasmussen	Oreca 07	238	+11 Laps 1'31.471	41.235	10
15	PREMA RACING LMP2	9	F. Ugran B. Viscaal J. Correa	Oreca 07	238	+11 Laps 1'57.672	26.201	11
16	PREMA RACING LMP2	63	D. Pin M. Bortolotti D. Kvyat	Oreca 07	237	12 laps		11
17	INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION LMP2	34	J. Smiechowski F. Scherer A. Costa	Oreca 07	237	+12 Laps 20.673	20.673	11
18	Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2	36	M. Vaxiviere J. Canal C. Milesi	Oreca 07	237	+12 Laps 38.458	17.785	10
19	United Autosports LMP2	23	J. Pierson T. Blomqvist O. Jarvis	Oreca 07	237	+12 Laps 1'24.117	45.659	12
20	United Autosports LMP2	22	F. Lubin P. Hanson F. Albuquerque	Oreca 07	237	+12 Laps 1'28.490	4.373	12
21	Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2	35	A. Negrao M. Rojas O. Caldwell	Oreca 07	236	13 laps		10
22	IRON DAMES LMGTE AM	85	S. Bovy M. Gatting R. Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	232	17 laps		7
23	D'Station Racing LMGTE AM	777	L. Talbot C. Stevenson T. Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	232	+17 Laps 18.295	18.295	7
24	NORTHWEST AMR LMGTE AM	98	I. James D. Mancinelli A. Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	232	+17 Laps 55.344	37.049	8
25	AF Corse LMGTE AM	54	T. Flohr F. Castellacci D. Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	232	+17 Laps 1'42.362	47.018	7
26	Kessel Racing LMGTE AM	57	T. Kimura E. Masson D. Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	232	+17 Laps 1'43.881	1.519	7
27	Proton Competition LMGTE AM	77	C. Ried M. Pedersen J. Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	231	18 laps		8
28	Corvette Racing LMGTE AM	33	B. Keating N. Varrone N. Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	231	+18 Laps 4.871	4.871	7
29	GR RACING LMGTE AM	86	M. Wainwright R. Pera B. Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	231	+18 Laps 29.663	24.792	7
30	RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE LMGTE AM	83	L. Perez Companc L. Wadoux A. Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	231	+18 Laps 1'57.715	1'28.052	9
31	PROJECT 1 - AO LMGTE AM	56	P. Hyett G. Jeannette M. Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	230	19 laps		10
32	AF Corse LMGTE AM	21	F. Dezoteux S. Mann K. Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	229	20 laps		9
33	FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR	4	E. Guerrieri T. Vautier R. Briscoe	Vanwall Vandervell 680	217	32 laps		13
34	ORT BY TF LMGTE AM	25	A. Al Harthy M. Dinan C. Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	217	31 laps		8	Retirement
35	VECTOR SPORT LMP2	10	R. Cullen M. Kaiser G. Aubry	Oreca 07	216	33 laps		11	Retirement
36	IRON LYNX LMGTE AM	60	C. Schiavoni M. Cressoni A. Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	163	86 laps		6	Retirement
View full results