Toyota GAZOO Racing claimed the race win and the title in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after eight hours of racing at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Bahrain season finale.
It was a gripping final two hours of racing concluded the 2023 WEC season finale, with Toyota having retained control of the Hypercar lead from the beginning.
Furthermore, WRT’s #41 crew secured the last WEC LMP2 title, as the Iron Dames finally took their maiden WEC win in the final GTE Am race in spite of the pressure towards the end.
Despite the seemingly little fight for the overall lead, there were many battles across the LMP2 and GTE Am classes which kept the racing going from the green to the chequered flag, without the need to deploy a safety car period.
Following the scheduled Hypercar pit stops after the five hour mark, the hotly contested battle for third place continued.
The #38 JOTA Porsche demonstrated great pace to redact any lesser fighting chance after their drive-through penalty, but had been jumped by the #51 Ferrari as the pair exited the pits.
Will Stevens had jumped into the #38, and Alessandro Pier Guidi did his best to retain the track position over their fellow podium contender rival.
Antonio Fuoco in the other #50 Ferrari 499P had already completed his pit stop earlier, and so overtook the pair of them with warmed up tyres, despite brief contact with his teammate Ferrari.
The two Ferraris briefly ran nose-to-tail with one another during an intense duel, as they held third and fourth at the end of their jostle.
In LMP2, both Team WRT Oreca 07s took over the lead of the LMP2 class, the #31 ahead of the #41.
Tension ensued as Stevens managed to pressure the #51 Ferrari of Pier Guidi, even though their tyre age was the same from when they both had all-fresh tyres from the previous pit stop.
Eventually, Stevens overtook Pier Guidi with a straight-forward move on the inside of Turn 1, however Pier Guidi was not in the clear yet as Kevin Estre’s #6 Porsche Penske gave pressure to the Ferrari.
Into the final hour, as the Hypercar pit stops took place, Estre’s stop was five seconds quicker than the #38 which had Stevens still behind the wheel, albeit on a stint-old front-left tyre as the other three were fresh slicks.
Stevens set about the momentous task of reeling in the #50 Ferrari which was ahead having pitted a lap earlier, although Stevens and Estre still kept themselves ahead of the #51.
The #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 ran into troubles with Gabriel Aubry behind the wheel, after it ran slowly from Turn 8, suspectedly stuck in first gear.
A power cycle was performed to get it going again, only to stop at Turn 13. To the team’s misfortune, the #10 was wheeled into the garage.
During this situation, Team WRT’s #31 pitted a lap after the #41, however ended up being prolonged after the front-left wheel initially refused to come off the car, which compromised the 1-2 formation at the front of the LMP2 field until they took the jump ahead of the #28 JOTA.
Two key battles were the talk of the last final 30 minutes to the finish: The first for third overall, and the pursuit of the final GTE-Am victory.
Stevens continued his gain on the #50 Ferrari with Antonio Fuoco driving with a 2-3 second gap between the two.
Meanwhile, Casper Stevenson’s efforts in the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage over the past stint were rewarded with a significantly closer reach to the leading #85 Iron Dames Porsche with Michelle Gatting behind the wheel.
Stevenson demonstrated quicker pace, but Gatting had the crucial advantage of track position.
After the #777 Aston Martin put down the gap to two seconds, the gap then expanded to three as the Hypercars lapped them both.
At the chequered flag, the #8 Toyota GAZOO Racing crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won the race and were crowned 2023 Hypercar Drivers’ champions.
In second position was the #7 Toyota drivers of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.
The #50 AF Corse Ferrari trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen finished in third place.
LMP2 was won in 1-2 formation by Team WRT, as the #41 crew of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz became the final WEC LMP2 champions.
The state of traffic management was key in closing or expanding the gap between the two GTE Am drivers, and it was the latter effect – plus Gatting’s stable pace – which kept the Iron Dames hopes up in a final minutes.
Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey won the Iron Dames’ first WEC race after five pole positions this season, and several close-attempts in doing so.
The trio took the final win of the beloved era of GTE cars.
In second place, Liam Talbot – who made his WEC debut this weekend – and Casper Stevenson, and Tomonobu Fujii secured the spot for D’station Racing.
The final podium position was claimed by the #98 Northwest AMR crew of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas.
The #33 Corvette Racing crew won the GTE Am championship title earlier in the year at Monza.
Finally, Christian Reid marked this as his final race, having competed in the WEC since the inaugural race in 2012, and so he finished P6 in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche.
