Toyota triumph
Manama : The stars were out yesterday at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir, but none shone brighter than Toyota Gazoo Racing in winning this year’s hugely exciting FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain.
Sebastien Buemi was behind the wheel of Toyota’s no. 8 TS050 Hybrid as it crossed the finish line for the final chequered flag of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Buemi shared duties in the car with teammates Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, and they completed the endurance challenge with a total of 199 laps around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track. They enjoyed an incident-free race, allowing them to take over as leaders in the first hour and never looking back.
It was the third successive victory for the in-form trio as they end this year’s WEC campaign with five wins in all.
World champions Porsche followed in second and third place, respectively. The double podium was a fitting farewell to the team in what was their final race in the WEC’s Le Mans Prototype (LMP) category. The German manufacturers announced previously that they would be withdrawing from the series’ premier class at the season’s end.
Their no. 2 drivers’ title-winning 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley were the overall runners-up. They were one lap behind the winning Toyota but were also 46.641 seconds ahead of Porsche teammates and pole-sitters Neel Jani, Nick Tandy and Andre Lotterer, who had to settle for third.
Toyota’s no. 7 challenger driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez was classified fourth overall, three laps behind their top-ranked teammates. They completed the overall classification in the LMP1 class.
Meanwhile, Bruno Senna led Vaillant Rebellion to first place in the LMP2 class. Sharing the duties with Julien Canal and Nicolas Prost in their Oreca 07-Gibson, Senna helped his team finish with a total of 186 laps. They were joined on the podium by the Jackie Chan DC Racing trio of Ho-Pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent who were second in their Oreca 07-Gibson, and third-placers Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson and Nelson Piquet Jr in the other Vaillante Rebellion challenger.
In the LMGTE Pro category, Sam Bird and Davide Rigon steered their Ferrari 488 GTE to a fine win with a total 175 laps. They were followed by AF Corse teammates James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
The Aston Martin Racing trio of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana triumphed in the LMGTE Am category.
Bapco Deputy CEO Ebrahim Taleb presented Toyota Gazoo Racing for the overall winners’ trophy. FIA World Motorsport Council Member, Commission Internationale de Karting President and Bahrain Motor Federation President Shaikh Abdulla bin Isa Al Khalifa, BIC Chairman of the Board Arif Rahimi, and FIA President of the Endurance Commission Sir Lindsay Owen Jones were present.
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