What Porsche needs to do to seal the WEC title

As it stands, the crew of the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid has a lead of 17 points over the only car which can beat it to the title - the #6 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin.

Essentially, this means Jani, Lieb and Dumas, who have scored 152 points this season, need a fifth place finish to be certain of the crown, regardless of what the Toyota does. If the car is reliable, this seems all but assured to happen, given that the sister #1 Porsche will be playing a supporting role.

However, what the #2 Porsche drivers cannot afford to do is to finish sixth with the #6 Toyota winning the race, as in this scenario they would lose on countback having scored fewer second places.

If the #6 Toyota doesn't win however, the Porsche crew merely needs to tie on points to be guaranteed the title, as they have taken two wins to Toyota's one so far this year.

Here is a more detailed run-down of the potential scenarios:

The #6 Toyota cannot win if it finishes third or lower, even if it scores pole.

Speaking out their chances of coming away with the title, the bosses of both the Porsche and Toyota teams were eager to stress that this weekend's Bahrain race is one to be treated like any other.

"It looks simple, but that's the problem, I think," Porsche LMP1 vice-president Fritz Enzinger told Motorsport.com.

"We need just a fifth place, even if Toyota wins and is on pole position.

"Normally, yes [it's simple], but we'll see! We'll do the same procedure as the last race, hopefully the drivers are relaxed and go do the rest. That's it."

Meanwhile, Toyota Team President Toshio Sato told Motorsport.com: "We push as usual, nothing special [about the approach]. We have a very good race pace, so we race as usual.

"It's quite a good track for us, we won here in 2013 and '14, so we have a good history here.

"Of course it's not so easy, considering the points, but we will challenge for it."

Additional reporting by Khodr Rawi and Erwin Jaeggi