Race report
WEC Bahrain
WEC Bahrain: #8 Toyota claims title with victory, Iron Dames win last GTE race
Toyota trio Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa claimed the 2023 World Endurance Championship title following a dominant win in the Bahrain season finale on Saturday.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Nov 6, 2023, 11:13 AM
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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.
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 the 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.
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.
WRT triumphs in 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 were 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 pole-sitter 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 retake the lead, only for the same tyre pressure punishment to leave Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Joshua Pierson eighth in the final order.
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.
Corvette trio Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone rounded off their title-winning season in seventh.
Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information Additional Data
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
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