Porsche 963
Toyota car number 8 makes a huge comeback from 10th place
The Toyota GR010 Hybrid No. 8 (Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa) started from pole position but made a huge comeback and finished in first place after making contact early on and dropping significantly down the order.
The final round of the WEC, the Bahrain 8 Hours, was exciting and unpredictable from the start. The first major drama occurred on lap 10, when Sébastien Buemi, who had started from pole position in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, was hit from behind by a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R competing in the LMGT3 class, causing the #8 car to spin out. The #8 car, which had been leading the race smoothly, dropped to seventh place.
After that, the #51 Ferrari 499P (Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Carra, Antonio Giovinazzi) led the race until the middle of the race. The safety car was deployed twice in the second half of the race, and the race resumed with one hour remaining, with 18 hypercars closely competing.
Buemi, driving the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid for the final stint, made an astonishing comeback from 10th place. He overtook one rival after another and moved up to second place by the end of his final pit stop. With less than 30 minutes remaining, Buemi passed the leading #5 Porsche 963 (Matt Campbell, Michael Kristensen, and Frederic Makowiecki) to finally take the lead. Buemi steadily built up a margin in the remaining laps and finished first. He took his second win of the season, 27.539 seconds ahead of the second-place #51 Ferrari 499P and 29.177 seconds ahead of the third-place #5 Porsche 963.
Toyota’s No. 7 car (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries), which had a chance of winning the Drivers’ Championship, ended up retiring due to fuel pump problems, but the victory of No. 8 car secured Toyota’s sixth consecutive WEC Manufacturers’ Championship. Buemi, who took home the come-from-behind victory, reflected on the race as follows:
“It was probably the best drive of my career. I had some contact early on that put me behind, but the race is long and our strategy was to save the tyres for the final stages. I was down to 10th in the final stint and honestly thought I couldn’t make it back. But with the tyre advantage, everything worked out perfectly in the end.”
After the finish, Ferrari #51 was found to have violated tire regulations and was given a 4 minute 55 second penalty, demoting it to 14th place. In its place, Porsche #5 took second place, and Peugeot #93 9X8 (Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne) took third place.
Porsche No. 6 car wins the Drivers’ Championship
The Porsche 963 No. 6 had won two races so far this season and was heading into the final race as the points leader. In the final race, rivals Toyota and Ferrari dropped out, but the team finished 11th and won the Drivers’ Championship title.
Estre, Lotterer and Vanthoor, who entered the final race as points leaders, finished just outside the points in 11th place in the #6 Porsche 963. However, they still managed to beat their rivals, the #7 Toyota and the #50 Ferrari (Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen), and took home the Drivers’ Championship title to Porsche.
Starting from sixth on the grid, the Porsche 963 No. 6 suffered a tough start and dropped to 15th place. However, finishing eighth would secure the title regardless of the results of their rivals, so they avoided any aggressive race strategies and continued to drive at a steady pace. As a result, Toyota No. 7 suffered fuel pump trouble and Ferrari No. 50 dropped out of the points on the first lap, allowing them to finish in 11th place without pushing themselves too hard, securing the drivers’ title.
Vanthoor, who finished outside the points for the first time this season, expressed his delight:
“It was a terrible race (laughs). I haven’t made many mistakes this season, but today I made a year’s worth of mistakes. Still, we had a great strategy, a great car, and we were able to consistently accumulate points, which is why we were able to secure the World Championship title.”
“Once again, it’s been a truly amazing year. I’ve never worked with such an amazing team – my teammates, mechanics, engineers – and today was the best day of my life. To be honest, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’m sure I’ll never forget this joy.”
