The session was interrupted with a red flag to clear oil dropped on the track in several places by the no67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell.

Mike Conway led the way in the no7 TS050 with a 1m42.313 lap, 0.199 seconds ahead of the no8 Toyota with Sebastien Buemi posting a 1m42.512.  The no1 Porsche was the faster of the two 919s in the last WEC weekend for the German manufacturer.  Neel Jani set a 1m42.647, 0.166s ahead of the 2017 champion Timo Bernhard in the no2 Porsche.

The no51 AF Corse Ferrari was the quickest of the contenders for the remaining FIA World Championship still be decided in Bahrain. 

Championship leader Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest lap in the LMGTE Pro category, the Italian posting a 1m58.579, 0.322 ahead of the no97 Aston Martin Vantage of Jonny Adam.

The no67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell had returned to the pits after causing the red flag by dropping oil on track.  The mechanics got the car ready and the English driver returned to the track to record the third quickest time, a 1m59.413, 0.8s behind the leading Ferrari.

The LMP2 category was headed by the no13 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca of Nelson Piquet Jnr with a 1m48.707, just 0.022s ahead of Loic Duval in the no26 G Drive Racing Oreca, the 2013 FIA World Endurance Driver’s Champion making his LMP2 debut this weekend. 

The two LMP2 championship contenders could only manage 7^th and 9^th fastest in class with the no38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca posting a 1m49.854, 1.1 seconds behind the fastest in class.  The championship leading no31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca was 9^th and slowest in the LMP2 category with a best lap of 1m50.467, 1.7 seconds behind their teammates.

The LMGTE Am class was headed by the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche, with Matteo Cairoli posting a 2m.00.428 lap, 0.125s ahead of Pedro Lamy in the championship leading no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage.

The second Free Practice session will take place under the circuit floodlights and under the stars in the desert.  The 90-minute session is due to get underway at 19:30 local / 17:30 CET.

A dramatic and thrilling 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship will conclude in the desert under the floodlights on Saturday 18th November in the 6 Hours of Bahrain. 

With the LMP1 Driver and Manufacturer and GT Manufacturer World Championships decided in Shanghai, all eyes will now focus on the GT World Drivers’ Championship where three driver crews from Ferrari, Ford and Porsche, who are split by just 7.5 points, will go head to head in a contest where the winner takes all.

The FIA World Endurance Trophies for LMP2 Drivers and Teams and also for the LMGTE Am Drivers and Teams are also still to be decided, with all four titles still too close to call ahead of the final weekend of racing action.

LMP1: Porsche are Champions but Toyota Looking for Win Number Five in Bahrain

Porsche secured its third consecutive World Endurance Manufacturers Championship in China, while Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley also wrapped up the World Drivers’ title with a fine second place in Shanghai.  .

Porsche has won four of the eight rounds so far, but Toyota’s victory at the last two races demonstrates that the Japanese manufacturer is looking to upstage their German rivals in Porsche’s last LMP1 race.

New World Champions Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard have won 50% of the 2017 races in the No.2 919 Hybrid, while Toyota’s Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson are also level with 50%.  The ninth and final victory of the season will be crucial to both manufacturers as they look to finish their seasons on a high note.

Inaugural GT World Endurance Drivers Crown Too Close to Call

With Ferrari securing the first GT FIA World Endurance Manufacturers Championship in China, the focus is now on the closest LMGTE Pro season ever, with the drivers’ world title coming to a dramatic conclusion in Bahrain.

Ferrari duo James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi saw their advantage reduced in Shanghai last weekend by the Porsche duo of Frédéric Makowiecki and Richard Lietz and the two crews are separated by just two points at the top of the table.  However 6 Hours of Shanghai winners Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx are snapping at their heels, the Ford pairing just 7.5 points behind.

With 8 points separating first and second place, winning in Bahrain would mean winning the world crown for the three driver crews.  It also makes the one point for qualifying very important on Friday evening.

Should he and Tincknell be victorious in Bahrain, three time World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx would join Petter Solberg (WRC 2003 / WRX 2012-13) as the only drivers to have won FIA world titles in two different disciplines.

The battle in LMP2 set to continue to the final lap of the season

The LMP2 battle in China was one of the best-ever races in terms of entertainment and competition, and the eventual result saw a change in the FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Trophy classification for the first time this season.

Moving ahead of the No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing line up into top spot is the Vaillante Rebellion duo of Bruno Senna and Julien Canal from the No.31 ORECA 07.  They, together with their team mate Nicolas Prost, have won three of the last rounds and now hold a 4-point lead over the Chinese-team’s Ho-Pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent.  In third place in the standings, and still within a mathematical chance of title victory, is Gustavo Menezes from the No.36 Signatech Alpine Matmut entry. 

2013 FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Champion Loïc Duval makes his LMP2 debut for the No.26 G-Drive Racing team alongside Roman Rusinov and Léo Roussel.

All to Play For in LMGTE Am

The LMGTE Am category has been ultra-close this season with three entrants consistently close in the standings. 

Going in to the Shanghai race the Dempsey Proton Porsche trio of Marvin Dienst, Matteo Cairoli and Christian Ried and Aston Martin Racing drivers, Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda, were level on points.  However, a third win of the season for the Aston Martin crew and a third place for Dempsey Proton ensured that a 10-point gap was opened up.   Still in with a mathematical chance of snatching the title are Keita Sawa, Weng Sun Mok and Matt Griffin in the Clearwater Racing Ferrari.

Situated in the desert, the impressive Bahrain International Circuit provides the challenge of a sandy and sometimes slippery track surface as well as racing into the night as the sun sets over the Persian Gulf.

The circuit and heat are demanding for the drivers, the facilities are second to none, and the welcome is as warm as the weather.

Bahrain is the perfect venue to conclude the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship and here are some facts and figures about the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, the Bahrain International Circuit and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

6 HOURS OF BAHRAIN

1. The longest race was held in 2016 with the no8 Audi R18 completing 201 laps, the first time the race distance had exceeded 200 laps. The 2016 race distance was 1087.812km.
2. Audi won in 2012 and 2016, Toyota in 2013 and 2014 and Porsche in 2015.
3. ORECA have won four of the five LMP2 races:  Pecom Racing in 2012, G-Drive Racing in 2013 and 2016 and KCMG in 2014.  Ligier won in 2015 with G-Drive Racing.
4. Ferrari won LMGTE Pro from 2012 to 2014 with Toni Vilander winning all three events.  The Finn won in 2012 with Giancarlo Fisichella and in 2013 and 2014 with Gianmaria Bruni.  Porsche won in 2015 with victory for Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki, while Aston Martin were victorious in 2016 with Nicky Thiim and Marco Sorensen.
5. Porsche and Aston Martin have shared the LMGTE Am class honours.  Porsche won in 2012 and 2016 while Aston Martin took the class win in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
6. Mike Conway and Nicky Thiim are the only drivers to win the 6 Hours of Bahrain in two different classes. In 2013 Conway won LMP2 with G-Drive Racing.  In 2014 he won in LMP1 with Toyota. Thiim won the LMGTE Am category in 2013 and 2014 and the LMGTE Pro class in 2016, all with Aston Martin Racing.
7. Drivers who have won in Bahrain three times

Roman Rusinov - LMP2 2013 / 2015 / 2016

Toni Vilander – LMGTE Pro 2012 / 2013 / 2014

Nicki Thiim- LMGTE Am 2013 / 2014 – LMGTE Pro 2016

8. The current fastest race lap record is held by Lucas Di Grassi.  The LMP2 lap records date back to 2013 and the LMGTE Am to 2014.

BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT

9. Opened in 2004, the Bahrain International Circuit was built in 16 months and cost $150 million.
10. The Bahrain International Circuit is 5.412km / 3.362 miles in length.
11. The circuit has 15 turns (9 right and 6 left).
12. Length of start/finish straight is 1,090 m.
13. Circuit floodlighting – turning night into day.  A section of the floodlight system was partially used during the 2013 6 Hours of Bahrain and was fully operational for the 2014 race.
    • 495 light poles erected along the track
    • Each pole 10 to 45 metres in height
    • 5,000 lights
    • More than 500km of cabling

THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

14. The Kingdom of Bahrain is an archipelago of 35 islands covering 780 square kilometres, making Bahrain the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore, and has a population of 1.3 million.
15. Bahrain is the site of the ancient land of the Dilmun civilisation. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam in 628 AD. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire.  In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.
16. Bahrain was a British protectorate from 1880 until 1971, when the Kingdom became independent.
17. Causeways link the main island with two other islands and with its closest neighbour, Saudi Arabia.
18. In Arabic, Bahrayn is the dual form of bahr ("sea"), so al-Bahrayn means "the two seas”.
19. Bahrain World Trade Centre is the first skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines into its design. Each turbine is 29m in diameter and their capacity is 675kw of wind power production.
20. Bahrain’s flag used to be the largest flag in the world, setting a Guinness world record in 2004 at 169.5m long and 97.1m wide. The five red points signify the five pillars of Islam.

A dominant victory in the penultimate round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota was not enough to prevent Porsche from winning the World Manufacturers’ Championship today in Shanghai.

Second place for the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid crew of Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley gave them a well-deserved 2017 FIA World Endurance Drivers’ title with one round remaining.  It is Bernhard and Hartley’s second championship title (first in 2015) and Bamber’s first.

Toyota’s No.8 TS050 HYBRID of Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi led a convincing display by the Japanese manufacturer, although the result could have been very different in terms of the race result and the championship situation had the No.7 Toyota of José Maria Lopez not clashed with one of the leading GTE Pro cars in the final hour.  

The result saw the Japanese car forced to pit and the two Porsche 919 Hybrids move up to second and third, while the delayed Toyota ultimately came in fourth.

It was Toyota Gazoo Racing’s fourth win of the season meaning that the eight races have been completely split between the Japanese marque and their rivals Porsche, with one round remaining. 

Rounding out the podium in Shanghai was the No.1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani, André Lotterer and Nick Tandy. Their race was compromised in the first hour when Tandy slowed with a throttle sensor issue.

It was an ultra-successful day for Porsche as they also took the FIA World Endurance Manufacturers Championship, and as with the Drivers’ title it was also the third consecutive time Porsche has lifted the trophy.

An enthusiastic crowd of 58,000 spectators over the weekend at Shanghai International Circuit saw a memorable event and went home having witnessed an incredible race which was full of action, drama and tension.

One of the best ever LMP2 races was won by the No.31 Vaillante Rebellion squad in Shanghai as Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Julien Canal triumphed for the third time this season.

In a race of incident and excitement Senna laid the foundations for the win which takes him and Canal to the lead of the championship by four points (Prost having missed a race earlier in the year). 

Their chief rivals during the race were the Jackie Chan DC Racing trio of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent. The three-time category winners had seemed to have built a race-winning platform after a stellar double stint from Jarvis, but then a fraught final two hours saw a collision between their No.38 ORECA 07 and the No.26 G-Drive Racing car.  Damage to the front of their car meant they eventually finished in fourth position.

Runners-up in Shanghai today were the Signatech Alpine crew of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and André Negrão. Today’s result keeps Menezes in outside contention for the LMP2 Drivers’ crown.

Making it two Vaillante Rebellion entries in the top three was the No.13 car of Nelson Piquet Jr, David Heinemeier-Hansson and Mathias Beche. They recovered from contact on the opening lap to score their second podium position of the season, with Dane Heinemeier Hansson having a particularly strong race. 

The final round of the 2017 WEC season is the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain which will race into the night on Saturday 18th November.