Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa started from pole position and won easily in the final race of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, the Bapco Energies Bahrain 8 Hours, on Saturday (November 4). I got it. This was the trio’s second win of the season, clinching the Hypercar World Championship title. No. 8 Toyota continued to run in the lead for all 249 laps of the race.
“I feel really good,” Hartley told WEC’s Louise Beckett after the race. “Ryo” [Hirakawa] and cebu [Buemi]; We’ve been working pretty hard on this all year. Le Mans (lost by 81 seconds due to crash repairs) was a pretty tough race, but the rest of the season was completely uneventful. ”
The margin of victory over teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez was 47.516 seconds. Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen took third place, ahead of Hearts Team Jota’s Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye, taking the final spot on the podium. obtained. Porsche Penske Motorsports’ Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor were fifth.
Buemi started from overall pole position and shot out into the distance. Meanwhile, trouble occurred on the first turn. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber collided with Conway, resulting in a multi-car incident.
Conway spun but was able to restart. Meanwhile, United Autosports’ Phil Hanson returned from the final race and got in behind Floyd VanWall Racing Team’s Tristan Vauthier, causing him to spin and take off teammate LMP2 pole sitter Tom Blomke. Recovered Vist. Signatech Alpine’s Mathieu Vaxivière also participated.
Bamber caused his tires to lock up while braking in the first turn, but was found responsible for the accident and given a penalty. That, combined with the contact damage, ruined Cadillac’s day. Bamber ultimately finished 11th, three laps down, along with his teammates Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook.
Buemi was able to build up a considerable advantage against the Ferraris of Molina and Pierre Guidi. As Buemi pulled away, his teammates began fighting for second place.
Further back, Conway dropped to 20th place due to a spin, but quickly returned to the lead. However, in the end he was more than 20 seconds behind Buemi. He was unable to regain that position.
Hartley increased his advantage to up to 45 seconds in the third hour. The No. 7 team returned to second place shortly before the halfway point, and the margin remained here for the remainder of the race.
Hartley and his teammates still pushed the Toyota GR010 Hybrid, extending their advantage at times. That being said, the pressure was off. They were able to maintain their advantage until the end.
In LMP2, Blomqvist started from pole position but wrecked at the first corner. When the dust cleared, Vector Sports’ Gabriel Aubry was class leader, ahead of Sean Garael.
The Vector Sport was able to take the lead until an electrical issue caused it to fall back. These problems ultimately led to his withdrawal from the race in the final hour.
After problems with Vector Sport, Ferdinand Habsburg took the lead and ran strongly for most of the race. Despite Habsburg receiving a full-course yellow and speeding penalty, the No. 31 team was able to maintain its lead.
The times between the two WRT entries were so close that the race was decided in the pits. The No. 31 team had a poor final pit stop, resulting in a 20-second time loss for Robin Frijns. This was enough for Louis Deletraz in the No. 41 car to jump to the top of the class.
From there Deletraz was able to hold on, taking his second consecutive LMP2 victory behind Rui Andrade and Robert Kubica, and his third of the year. The win also gave the trio their final WEC LMP2 championship.
The margin of victory over Frijns, Galael and Habsburg was 9.190 seconds. JOTA Sport’s Pietro Fittipaldi, David Heinemeyer Hansson and Oliver Rasmussen were third, followed by the two Prema entries. The number 9 of Juan Manuel Correa, Filip Ugulan and Bento Viskar beat the number 63 of Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kibat and Dorian Ping.
In GTE-Am, the dominant team for most of the race was the #60 Porsche of Iron Lynx, which initially started at the back of the field. Matteo Cressoni and Alessio Picariello did a great job of gaining ground early on and taking the lead.
The problem is simply that that wasn’t the original plan. The original plan was for Claudio Schiavoni to start the car and drive it long enough to meet the minimum driving time before setting off. However, Schiavoni was unable to go on Saturday due to illness.
As a result, the race was a farewell to the team’s Porsche 911 RSR-19. Cressoni and Picariello completed a full lap around the rest of the class before being forced to retire at the sixth hour due to a timeout.
After the departure of Cressoni and Picariello, it was the Iron Dames Porsche with Rahel Frei at the wheel that took the lead in the class. The veteran racer maintained his advantage and was then replaced by Michelle Gatting as he raced to the finish line.
In the final hour, D’Station Racing’s Casper Stephenson began to corner Gatting. With 15 minutes remaining, the gap had narrowed to less than two seconds, with Peugeot’s Mikel Jensen and Proton Competition’s Harry Tincknell catching up to the front two from behind.
The Peugeot and Porsche hypercars are much faster than the GTE cars, but they are a little slower around corners. Stevenson ended up being held up by Jensen and Tincknell. That was all Gatting needed to hold on to claim the first-ever WEC class win for Gatting, Frey and Sarah Bobby. This is the first WEC win for an all-female driver team in any class.
Iron Dame’s margin of victory was 5.548 seconds over D’Station Racing’s Stevenson, Tomonobu Fujii and Liam Talbot. Northwest AMR/The Heart of Racing’s Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riveras finished third after receiving a penalty for spinning out Viskar in Turn 1. AF Corse’s Francesco Castellazzi, Thomas Flohr and Davide Rigon were fourth, followed by Kessel Racing’s Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson in third. Daniel Serra was fifth.
The GTE-Am World Championship was won at Monza in July by Corvette Racing’s Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varone. They placed 7th in their class.
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