Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID took a commanding victory from pole position in the Bahrain 8 Hours on Saturday night, capping off a highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese team.
Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa score their second wins of the season, clinching the 2023 Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Championship and the 45th win in the manufacturer’s history, as well as the Cologne-based program In 2023, he won 6 out of 7 races.
Next, No. 7 sister Toyota Motor Corporation finished in 2nd place with a score of 1-2. It was a fierce battle for the No. 7 crew to take a podium spot after making a spectacular comeback in the early stages of the race.
Mike Conway was rear-ended by Earl Bamber in a Cadillac as he entered Turn 1 shortly after the start, causing the Toyota to reverse and fall to last place. “Everyone trying to win in the first corner isn’t working very well,” Conway said later.
Bamber explained after the race that he wasn’t trying to make an ambitious push.
“Actually, I wasn’t trying to pass anyone. I just braked,” he said. “Then in the middle of the braking zone, both front tires ended up locking up. I tried to avoid the bit on the left side but hit the Toyota. It affected their race and obviously they It’s unfortunate that it affected the race as well.”
The Englishman had a mountain to climb, but he kept his head down and guided the No. 7 into third place in the opening hours. With less than six hours remaining, Kamui Kobayashi took James Calado’s No. 51 Ferrari 499P into second place at Turn 1.
From there, the No. 7 car’s run to the front stalled, and in the end, Hartley, Hirakawa, and Buemi were closing the gap with its sister cars. After 8 hours, the difference in victory was 47 seconds.
The No. 7 car’s season saw wins at Sebring, Spa, Monza, and Fuji, pushing Conway, Kobayashi, and Jose María López to the drivers’ title, and contributing to Toyota’s victory in the manufacturers’ championship in its home country. , achieved many results. However, his No. 7 woes at Portimao and retirement at Le Mans proved very costly, and ultimately he was unable to beat his sister car to the title. .
Elsewhere, mathematically both Ferraris were in contention for the title in today’s finale, but both Toyotas would have to be in big trouble for either crew to win.
This time, neither 499P was able to find the perfect pace, and for much of the race they were fighting for third place with HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche and each other. Ferrari’s frustrations finally boiled over in the second half, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco colliding multiple times after the sixth round stoppage.
As for JOTA, the privately run JOTA saw the British team finish an impressive fourth place after incredible performances from the likes of Will Stevens, Yifei Ye and Antonio Felix da Costa. There is no doubt that the Porsche 963 that was produced in 2016 had an outstanding performance in the race.
The climax of several hours of battle saw Stevens cross the line less than a second behind Fuoco, who secured the final podium spot in the No. 50 car. His sister car, 499P, finished in 6th place behind the No. 6 Penske Porsche.
The No. 6 car’s fifth-place finish came on a day when neither the Penske Porsche 963 nor the Proton appeared. It was also a quiet outing for the Peugeot 9X8 and Cadillac V-Series.R. Cadillac Racing’s 11th place finish in particular will be a big disappointment for everyone involved, despite showing a lot of expectations before the race.
After Alex Lynn’s qualifying heroics, the car started in third place, but was forced into a 90-second stop-and-hold due to contact with the No. 7 car in Turn 1. There was no safety car time for eight hours and the team was unable to find a way back into the race. .
In LMP2, the No. 41 Oreca of Team WRT of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, and Ruiz Deletraz won from 10th on the grid and comfortably won the drivers’ and team titles. While United Autosport and Inter Europol title rivals endured a tough battle punctuated by early race setbacks, the trio ran like a metronome to the finish.
United’s No. 22 Oreca was given a punitive stop-and-hold in the 90s for contacting a Vanwall on the exit of Turn 1 at the start, while Inter Europol’s car sat out for a significant amount of time due to technical problems. Alberto Costa was forced to stop twice to complete his power cycle.
As a result, in the final round of LMP2 as a full-season WEC category, the WRT title-winning crew was able to run to the flag with relative ease. Car No. 22 finished in 9th place, while the Oreca equipped with an InterEuropole Gibson finished in 6th place. With a lead of over 30 points before the race, it was always a long shot whether United or Inter Europol would win the title.
Behind WRT car No. 41, its sister car No. 31 took second place, making it a one-two for the Belgian team, which plans to switch to hypercars next year with BMW. But it was a heartbreaking final moment for Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns. The trio made no mistakes, but at their final destination something went wrong and they lost the lead. No. 28 JOTA ORECA finished the night in 3rd place.
It was a memorable day for Vector Sport’s ORECA and No. 23 United ORECA. Both drivers had their races ruined by stop-and-go penalties in the ’90s after they ran below the required tire pressure early in the race and “gained a huge advantage.”
Both cars were in the lead when the race control decision was made. Vector’s car eventually retired with an hour left due to a suspected throttle sensor problem, but the No. 23 car returned home in eighth place.
Meanwhile, the final victory in GTE history came in the form of the Iron Dame Porsche after a highly entertaining eight-hour battle between the 13 cars taking part in the category’s heated song. This was a very important result for the program and the championship, as the performances of Rahel Frei, Sarah Bobby and Michelle Gatting ensured the first all-female crew to win the WEC class.
At Monza, Corvette Racing clinched the title, making it a head-to-head race with no pressure to fight for the championship. With the gloves off, the category’s WEC campaign, which dates back to its inaugural season in 2012, ended with an unforgettable encounter.
D’Station Racing Aston Martin took second place, with Casper Stephenson unable to overtake Gatting in the final hour. The No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage placed him third, giving him two podium finishes for the British manufacturer.
For most of the race, Iron Lynx’s #60 Porsche took the lead after a monster stint by Matteo Cressoni and later Alessio Picariello. Unfortunately, the team’s bronze driver, Claudio Schivaoni, was not well enough to drive and had to park his car with 2 hours and 20 minutes remaining.
By regulation, the bronze driver of each car must complete the race in 2 hours and 20 minutes during the 8-hour race. So the team changed the driver order and held out for as long as possible, but the team parked the car early because they felt that Schiavoni would not be able to last until the end.
The GTE Am Championship winner had a rare and forgettable 7th place in his final race as a factory for the C8.R-powered Corvette Rack, but still enjoyed the final chapter of the program’s great season .
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