Everything else is up for grabs probably besides GTE-Am. Robin Frijns is setting fastest first sector times for LMP2 at WRT. So long, Jamie Campbell-Walter. See you at the party. Thanks to our guests for telling us how the race has been going. The gap is 26 seconds between the two Toyota's. One, destined to win the race, and the other, destined to win the title. Survive seven hours and race for the win in the final hour as Kazuki Nakajima slashes over the curbs. They destroyed their tires last weekend. Today, everything has gone well save for using two more right hand tires than they'd planned to. These are the words of Brendon Hartley. He says they ended up with another stint due to pitting earlier than expected under Full Course Yellow. Fingers crossed, especially for Kazuki Nakajima.
The LMP2 Pro-Am battle is still hot and heavy between Giedo van der Garde and Norman Nato. Michael Christensen is leading Alessandro Pier Guidi, and we could see double World Champions. We will have to sort out the championship stuff, in another post, maybe tomorrow. Calado and Pier Guidi, if they win, it will be their first wins with this team at AF Corse. We have also seen Porsche and Aston Martin win in GTE over the last seven years. #71 Ferrari have won here but the #51 might still win. Don't lay your money down yet. You will want to see the end of the racer and see who wins. Tom Blomqvist and Filipe Albuquerque are still pressing each other.
WRT #31 lead the motor race and the championship points. They could break out the broom and sweep but we still have a tad over 45 minutes left on the board. Pit stop time it appears for WRT. Ferrari #47 is in the pit lane now. The speed is not what it was for the Ferrari as we saw earlier;. That being said, Pier Guidi will continue to push. Do either of our GTE Pro contenders need a final pit stop? Yes. Both of them do. Charles Milesi has a gap on his competitors in LMP2. Pit stop time, for Alpine, maybe for the last time in 2021. Christensen leads Pier Guidi now by 2.5 seconds. Kevin Estre seems very nervous from his interview with Louise Beckett.
Antonio Felix Da Costa pits and drops to fourth with Tom Blomqvist doing the chasing. Alpine have indeed made their final stop. Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo, and Nicklas Nielsen will win GTE-Am and the titles. Perrodo has his third title consecutively. He's a legend now. Such a sad deal for TF Sport. Any and all LMP2 cars must make their final pit stops to get to the end of the motor race on a tank of petrol. Frijns leads Blomqvist in LMP2 as Pier Guidi creeps up on the Porsche. This isn't quite a no holds barred fight in GTE Pro. Will they be racing nose to tail? Francois Perrodo says luck has gone the way of AF Corse.
He wishes that the competition at TF Sport would have been there to race. AF Corse have clinched the GTE-Am championship and will not call anything yet. He is still playing his cards close to his chest. We saw that massive wallop to the #33 Aston Martin that broke the steering rack. Michael Christensen leads Alessandro Pier Guidi now by a minute or so. After seven and a half hours, the gap is a second between Porsche and Ferrari in GTE-Pro. We have one more year of GTE-Pro in WEC. There's only four cars in the class this year but the engineering, talent, strategy, pit work, it's been incredible.
If they need a splash and a dash, who will start quickest? Who has the biggest elbows to muscle the cars around? Track position will be critical. This is the last roll of the dice on fuel too. Ferrari can eke out an extra lap, and maybe Porsche can go far enough on fuel. It's this see sawing and we saw so many fuel mileage races in the American Le Mans Series. Yes, we can make it. No, we're going to have to gamble. 32 minutes left in the 2021 FIA WEC season. The LMP2 Am leaders are in pit lane with half an hour to go. RealTeam Racing and Racing Team Nederland both run by TDS Racing. Giedo van der Garde moves around the Ferrari which ran off the road and has collected clag on the tires.
Yes! Pier Guidi is off the road. The team is on the phone to Pier Guidi to say "remember, you are fighting for a championship." Giedo van der Garde now passes the Porsche. The Ferrari's front tires are knackered, but does the car have a front to rear balance that is preferable? That's the bigger question as Kazuki Nakajima leads Jose Maria Lopez. Locking up, the High Class Racing #20 of Anders Fjordbach. Nakajima makes his move. Brendon Hartley and company want to win this race for Kazuki Nakajima. #7 in the pit lane, splitting the pit strategy, the Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez team can still win back-to-back world championships after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well.
Christensen leads Pier Guidi by one second now. Robin Frijns makes his final pit stop, 25 minutes from victory. Too early to count the old chickens before they hatch. Toyota #8 pits from the lead and Kazuki Nakajima starts the final stint of his WEC career. The gloves are off now. This is going to be a fight to the finish. Toyota #8 takes less fuel but it's a moot point. It's trivial. Pier Guidi might just have to make a lunge at Christensen. Jota makes their final stop for the #28 car. Filipe Albuquerque also in the lane for the final time in the #22 car for United Autosport. United have made their move but in LMP2 it will be a two horse race in the final 20 minutes.
Gianmaria Bruni has gone two laps further than the top two. Bruni will be the bloke everyone is watching on the fuel mileage. Ferrari is very close to Porsche. Alex Brundle has been vaulted to fifth in LMP2 Am. We still watch this cracking battle for GTE Pro honors between Porsche and Ferrari. Hard to be sitting down to see this. It's very exciting racing. We've been hopping up and down since Spa Francorchamps back in May where the season began. The second place LMP2 battle is going to be wild. Giedo van der Garde leads and Frits van Eerd would be the sole winner of the LMP2 Pro-Am championship in 2021. He has not had consistent co-drivers this year.
It is gloves off now between Porsche and Ferrari, but don't go off track to gain an advantage. Here come the LMP2 cars. Only 16 minutes left on the board. Christensen has held position over the Ferrari for a while now. Filipe Albuquerque is catching some of the other LMP2 runners. No dice for this GTE Pro scrum. The LMP2 battle will close up. Wow! Aovid the gravel! Yikes! Ferrari off the road, look, keeping his foot in it. The second Jota car has compromised the Porsche. So, Alessandro Pier Guidi is back in it and the LMP2 scuffle is still on. 13 minutes left in the season.
Jose Maria Lopez is ten seconds behind Kazuki Nakajima. Toyota run 1-2 over Alpine and the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen has spun! The Ferrari biffed him off the road! That's a slam dunk. The incident is under investigation! Man oh man oh man! The car that hits from behind is the responsible party. The gap is ten seconds. There has to be a penalty and a drive through penalty would add 30 seconds t the race time. Good gravy! The stewards make that decision, not the Race Director. So, #51 must give the position back to car #92. Wow. Wow. Is there damage? Is it low on fuel? Is there a puncture?
Pier Guidi has lost time as the Porsche #92 is in the lane. This could be a slam dunk for Porsche. Wow. That's the wisdom of Solomon to race, rather than getting a penalty. If the Ferrari gets into the lane for fuel by design he will give the position back. Not fuel. Penalty. Kudos to the stewards for that decision to allow the motor race to continue. Christensen was in and now Pier Guidi has to come in. We haven't finished this yet except for the fact that Nicklas Nielsen has the opportunity to win GTE Am. Ferrari has to have their best pit stop of the whole year in any discipline of racing, right here and right now.
Squeaky squeaky time. Fuel, and go. He has to give the position back. It is not as cut and dried as we thought. The bonnet on the Ferrari is flapping. He's run wide. He has to give back the spot. Porsche #91 pits. Six minutes to decide the title. Alessandro Pier Guidi leads Michael Christensen. Ferrari could still win the lot but he has to give the position back. Antonio Felix Da Costa is running with Tom Blomqvist with Filipe Albuquerque behind. Five minutes to go as the #83 GTE Am winning Ferrari makes it's final stop. Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, and Alessio Rovera. Team Project 1 move to second in GTE Am.
Oh boy. A lockup here for one of the cars. Do you get three laps? It's a maximu, time period. Ricardo Pera runs four seconds ahead of Matt Campbell in GTE Am. The gap is 4.2 seconds between second and fourth in LMP2. Late lunge down the inside by Da Costa on Tom Blomqvist! Shades of Portimao back in June! In GTE Pro, Ferrari is exceeding track limits and we will decide this deal after the race, or on the final lap. The bonnet is peeling away on the right hand side. It's not bending. The hood pin is undone. So, we have two laps to go for the leader. 6.7 seconds is the gap as Toyota will win with Kazuki Nakajima in his last race and a championship for the #7.
Filipe Albuquerque is nearly right behind Tom Blomqvist in LMP2. Matt Campbell is with Ricardo Pera for the second position in GTE Am. Racing Team Nederland on target for a win and the title in LMP2 Pro-Am. Final lap for the Toyota and for WRT. Kazuki Nakajima along with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley, for Toyota, they will win this race. Checkered flag awaits. Toyota wins Bahrain in #8. Nakajima wins in his last race! #7 second, and Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, and Kamui Kobayashi are champions!
Robin Frijns, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg win LMP2 and the championship! In GTE-Pro it will be Alessandro Pier Guidi first to the checkers followed by the Am winning Ferrari #83 of Nicklas Nielsen and company will win. What will the outcome be in GTE-Pro? Have they won the championshup? We will have to wait for the stewards to make their decision. We have our champions and our race winners. As of now, Ferrari are champions. What will the stewards say? We may have to check in tonight with more.
Charles Milesi, Robin Frijns, and Ferdinand Habsburg are the LMP2 champions! World Endurance, Le Mans, and the European Le Mans Series! Wow! Frits van Eerd is the LMP2 Pro-Am driver's champion. Kazuki Nakajima has finished his career in spectacular style in WEC! We will see about who is going to win the GTE Pro championship. It was an accident. Toyota #8 completes 247 laps and 830 miles.
Overall/Le Mans Hypercar: #8 Buemi/Nakajima/Hartley Toyota GR010 Hybrid
LMP2: #31 Frijns/Milesi/Habsburg Oreca 07
LM GTE Pro: #51 Calado/Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE
LM GTE Am: #83 Perrodo/Nielsen/Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE
Double champions and Le Mans winners, for Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez! Congratulations to #8 on their win with Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima, and Sebastien Buemi. Spare a thought for Alpine as well. 59 starts for Kazuki Nakajima, 17 wins, and 19 podiums. The champagne is sprayed. Hypercar will grow in 2023. Hypercar and LMDh will be very competitive as the years go by. Hard to say what to say about Ferrari. Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado apparently are champions, but maybe not in the way they wanted to be.
In GTE Pro, there are no penalties as of now and we hear the Italian national anthem for Ferrari as World Champions! So, we will take that at face value and see if anything may happen. James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi are champions. The behavior from Neel Jani was quite unprofessional. Estre and Christensen did not remonstrate with their rivals. Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Robin Frijns, are Le Mans winners and champions.
Anthony Davidson gets second in his final race. Anthony Davidson, you Sir, are a legend! Francois Perrodo has now won three championships in GTE Am. They will move to LMP2 in 2022. We now have the GTE Am podium. Christian Ried is amazingly fit and he did very well. So, AF Corse win ahead of Dempsey Proton and Project 1 in GTE Am. Once again we hear the Italian national anthem for Ferrari.
Will we see Egidio Perfetti in the championship next year? Christian Ried has run all the races in WEC so far and in FIA GT Championship competition before that. Frits van Eerd is our Pro-Am champion in LMP2! In Pro-Am in LMP2, it is High Class Racing on the podium along with RealTram Racing and Racing Team Nederland. Champagne spray again! Let's celebrate. The championship comes to it's conclusion for 2021. We are so glad you could join us in World Endurance this year. Thank you LMEM, all the marshals and personnel. Thanks for joining us. Au revoir to those who leave us on a full-time basis.
But, for now, good night and thanks for your company. We'll see you in 2022 for more FIA WEC action! So long, everybody! Take care.
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