Porsche and Toyota both had reason to celebrate in the FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain today, as Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor clinched the FIA Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Championship while Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa secured FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship glory for Toyota.
The Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain was exciting and unpredictable from the outset, with the first major drama coming as early as lap ten when Buemi found himself punted out of the lead while lapping the #82 TF Sport Corvette. That dropped the Swiss star to seventh, and it was not until the closing stages that the pole-sitting #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 clawed its way properly back into contention.
After leapfrogging Antonio Giovinazzi in the long-time race-leading #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P and Vanthoor in the champion-elect #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, Buemi embarked upon his final stint in second place, behind only Matt Campbell in the #5 Porsche Penske Hypercar. Exploiting his fresher tyres, the four-time world champion went on a charge, setting a scintillating new fastest lap as he mercilessly hunted his prey. The decisive move came with 40 minutes remaining – after which, the result never looked in doubt.
The #8 crew’s success not only represented the first victory from pole position in WEC’s headlining category this season, it also made it seven different winners from eight races and – far more significantly – secured Toyota its fourth consecutive Hypercar Manufacturers’ trophy.
Drivers’ honours, however, went the way of Porsche, with Estre, Lotterer and Vanthoor fulfilling their pre-event favourite tag by holding off their Ferrari and Toyota rivals to seal the deal. Astonishingly, none of the three championship contenders finished inside the points in Bahrain – for the first time in 2024 – but the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport trio’s results earlier on in the campaign proved more than sufficient to get the job done.
Ferrari rolls the dice for LMGT3 glory
Vista AF Corse made it back-to-back successes in the LMGT3 class, in a race that could have gone a number of different ways – with multiple lead changes and an epic scrap for supremacy.
The key to the #55 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 crew’s victory was a bold late call on strategy, making one less pit-stop than most of their competitors. Courtesy of a masterclass in tyre management, Alessio Rovera fended off a dual TF Sport Corvette threat in the final hour to cement the Italian outfit’s second consecutive triumph in the car he shares with François Heriau and Simon Mann.
Corvette crews completed the podium-finishers, with the #81 piloted by Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy pipping the sister #82 entry – which had to battle back from an early penalty for the contact with Buemi – to the runner-up spoils.
