This is it. It has come down to the last event of the 2022 season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Titles are on the line, and it is the swansong of the GTE Pro class which has thrilled us with wheel to wheel and door to door action in the FIA WEC for the better part of the last decade. Next year, GTE Am shall become a single class before the WEC adopts some form of GT3 division coming online in 2024, and to be honest, we really don't know quite what that will entail just yet. Just as they were in Fuji, Japan, last time out, Glickenhaus are absent from the flyaway races. All the other contenders are indeed here, ready for the fight. We are going to see Toyota racing each other and maybe a battle between the two Peugeot's, with the Alpine (in their final start as a Hypercar team), getting a look in.
The Kingdom of Bahrain is the playground for the final event of the tenth season of the championship, 241 days since we started at the 1,000 Miles of Sebring in Florida back in March. It is hot in temperature and in competition. All but one championship is on the line. It is going to be a long, hot day as we start at 2PM locally and will end at 10PM locally. Mohammed bin Sulayem, the FIA President, who turns 61 years old. He is a Dakar rallying legend. Bahrain has hosted both Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship. 5.4 kilometers, three and a half miles. The track surface is extremely abrasive. Last November, the #8 Toyota ran 247 laps.
Paul di Resta starts on the front row for this race, and he was an LMP2 winner here last year. It is hot in the championship. The Hypercar manufacturer's cup has been decided in favor of Toyota. But the driver's titles in all classes and the manufacturer's and/or team's cups in all four divisions are on the line this evening. This will be a mega race. Don't touch that dial. You will want to be here. Grab a cup of coffee and some breakfast and join us. Both Porsche's and both Ferrari's are in with a shot at the title in the swansong for GTE Pro. In the GTE Am class, Aston Martin will take the crown but it depends on the team. Will it be TF Sport? Will it be Northwest AMR?
Before the race begins, let's have a Captain Cook at how qualifying went. Here is your qualifying order and recap. Fouth on the GTE Am grid is the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Swiss driver Nicki Leutwiler starting the car he is due to share with Mikkel Pedersen of Denmark and Italian Matteo Cairoli. Paul Dalla Lana is going to start the AMR Aston Martin. Third quickest in GTE Am is the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 which is to be started by Christian Ried, sharing alongside Sebastian Priaulx and Harry Tincknell. Christian Ried has the unique distinction of competing in every single race run in the decade long history of the FIA WEC.
Australian James Allen, getting a kiss from Amber O'Keefe, who's dad is a legendary racing driver. Second on the grid in GTE Am is the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. Ben Keating, the American car dealer/racing driver starts the car alongside Portugal's Henrique Chaves, and Dane Marco Sorensen. Marco Sorensen is the first of two Danish drivers along with rival Nicki Thiim. The pole sitting GTE Am car is the Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE with Sara Bovy of Belgium starting, sharing alongside Michelle Gatting of Denmark and Switzerland's Rahel Frey.
We see that Jim Glickenhaus is here in Bahrain on the grid resplendent in his team uniform, cowboy hat, and sunglasses. He is here but his cars are not competing in this race. We do hope to see Glickenhaus on the WEC grid next year. The Hypercar grid for 2023 will expand by leaps and bounds and let me just say, yours truly is super excited to cover World Endurance next year with the expanded grid as well as the new cars coming to the IMSA championship. There will be a boatload to talk about when we get to next year. Hard not to anticipate the future. But for now we must live in the present and see what is going to happen in today's finale here in Bahrain.
We take a look at the top qualifiers for the final GTE Pro race ever for World Endurance. We will miss the factory hotrods as GT racing is also going through a massive transition period over the next couple of seasons. Fourth on the grid is the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE in the hands of James Calado, the British driver, starting the car he shares with Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi. Ferrari will have a new Hypercar on the grid next year as you have read about already no doubt, with the 499P. Talking about Glickenhaus, we saw them on pole earlier in the year. Cadillac and other brands are here.
Zak Brown is here as team boss for United Autosport, but we all know he is also the boss at McLaren. McLaren will be back on the international grid in sports car racing in 2024 when the GT3 cars become commonplace in World Endurance. McLaren have a GT3 program. If you have followed other series like the WeatherTech Championship or the SRO championships in North America and Europe, you know where McLaren stands and their representation in production based sports car racing. Porsche #92 rolls off thrid in GTE Pro with the duo of Michael Christensen of Denmark and Kevin Estre of France. ProDrive and Aston Martin's David Richards is here and so is one of his former drivers, Pedro Lamy, who has raced Formula 1 and sports cars and he is in Race Control as the driving standards advisor today.
Second in GTE Pro it is the sister AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE #52 with Antonio Fuoco starting the car and sharing with Miguel Molina. Lamy is one of the winningest FIA WEC drivers in history. On the GTE Pro pole, it is the sister #91 factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni of Italy and Austrian Richard Lietz. Richard Lietz cannot win the title, but Bruni can. Lietz missed a race after coming down with the virus earlier in the year and could not score points. Bruni is still in the title picture. Mohamed Ben Sulayem, FIA President, signing autographs. There are lots of title permutations in GTE Pro.
Richard Mille and Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich are here. These two are key components within the World Endurance Championship and the running of it. OK. We've got both James Calado from Ferrari #51 and Kevin Estre from Porsche #92 teed up for an interview. Calado says GTE Pro is one of the most entertaining categories in WEC. May the best man win. Kevin Estre hopes for a close race and a good show for the fans and a better end to the race than last year for Porsche. Fair, hard racing is what he would like to see. Great sportsmanship from both drivers. It is extremely intense. We see Jim Glickenhaus talking to one of the Toyota people. To win the final race of the GTE Pro category in history, will be very special to whoever does it. A real feather in their hat.
Now we move to look at the LMP2 contenders. Tail end Charlie and seventh in class in LMP2 will be the #10 Vector Sport car to be started by Ryan Cullen sharing with Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais. Kevin Estre wills start Porsche #92 and did not get to qualify. Next up in LMP2 in sixth is the #23 United Autosports USA entry to be started by Alex Lynn sharing with Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson. By default, LMP2 is a one make category but that leaves the talent of the drivers shine through. Sportsmanship between the Hypercar rivals at Peugeot and Toyota before we get this race underway.
You know they will fight hammer and tongs from the green flag dropping shortly. Peugeot set to compete in their third WEC race. Fifth place starter in LMP2, that is the #44 ARC Bratislava entry. Miro Konopka, the Slovakian, starting the car, sharing with Switzerland's Mathias Beche, and Englishman, veteran sports car racer, Richard Bradley. So many drivers now racing each other were team mates years ago and that will happen again. Fourth in LMP2 is the #83 AF Corse entry to be started by Dane Nicklas Nielsen sharing alongside Frenchman Francois Perrodo and Italian Alessio Rovera.
We are also going to take a good look at the LMP2 Pro-Am class, the same cars, but with Bronze ranked drivers in the teams. That championship is being hard fought between AF Corse and Algarve Pro Racing. No Pro-Am LMP2 sub category next year and so AF Corse will likely continue on in the European Le Mans Series in 2023 although I believe they are also set to run the Ferrari 499P Hypercar program. We have the National Anthem of Bahrain and a flyover. Filipe Albuquerque starts third in class and eighth overall on the LMP2 grid at the wheel of the sister #23 United Autosports USA entry alongside Phil Hanson and Will Owen. We hear race broadcasting legend Bob Constaudros' voice over the public address system as now, the special centenary trophy for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans is being showcased.
That is a beauty! Second in LMP2 is the #38 Jota car with Mexico's Roberto Gonzalez as the starting driver sharing with Portugal's Antonio Felix Da Costa and Will Stevens from England. The Le Mans centenary trophy has been doing a world tour. RealTeam by WRT have the LMP2 pole with the #41 entry. Austrian royal Ferdinand Habsburg has the opening stint, and he will be joined by Rui Andrade from Angola and Frenchman, Norman Nato. Everyone wants a good, hard, close race and all want to come out on top. The UAE Air Force Knights does their aerobatic show, and the national anthem of Bahrain is played by a marching band. It is the Bahrain National Police Band.
Patrie de France, the British Red Arrows, the Saudi Falcons, the UAE Knights, a lot of different air force troops. Stay with us for this race. You won't want to miss anything because we race into the darkness and now, we are going to have a good view of the Le Mans Hypercar grid. In fifth place, in their final Hypercar appearance for the foreseeable future, Alpine Elf Team. Nico Lapierre starting the car sharing with Andrea Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Lining up fourth, the #94 Peugeot 9X8 for Peugeot TotalEnergies with Gustavo Menezes, the starting driver. The American, sharing with Loic Duval of France, and new Peugeot recruit, DTM veteran, Nico Muller from Switzerland.
This is the final race for the Alpine A480 and so, it is the final time we are seeing a car designed to the fondly remembered LMP1 regulations. From now on, the car will reside in a museum. We fondly remember the days of LMP1 which ran for over a decade. We shall be fully immersed in the Hypercar era in earnest, beginning next year. That car started life, did the Alpine LMP1, as an Oreca 03 and has been a spectacular servant to the world of international sports car racing through the years. Third on the grid is Toyota #7, the first of the team's two cars at Toyota Gazoo Racing with Argentina's Jose Maria Lopez taking the start.
Lopez sharing with Kamui Kobayashi of Japan and Mike Conway of England, the 2021 winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tires are now being mounted and bolted to the cars. We can hear the rattle guns in the background as we look at the second place #93, the sister Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8. Paul di Resta, the Scotsman, is the starting driver, sharing with Mikkel Jensen of Denmark, and Frenchman, Jean Eric Vergne. We catch a glimpse of the pre-race show here which is stuntman Terry Grant and one of his sidekicks doing burnouts and the like with a modified Nissan sports car raod car and a motorcycle.
Terry Grant is the stunt driver and he is doing donuts in a Nissan 370Z. Now we catch a glimpse of the pole sitter. This is the Le Mans winning #8 Toyota Hypercar. Sebastien Buemi, the Swiss legend who has now won four Le Mans races, is sharing the car with Brendon Hartley from New Zealand and Japan's Ryo Hirakawa of course. Toyota will have a slightly modified package for the GR010 Hypercar next year and they could very well build a new racer for 2024 continuing to Hypercar specifications. We'll see what develops with all of that. Sebastien Buemi is set to lead the field for the start of the motor race which is forthcoming.
I know. I know. Pre-race and all my incessant yapping can get really boring. I agree. It is soon time to go motor racing and we shall hopefully have more to talk about! The drivers are now alone in the car with their thoughts. They are in their happy place, focusing on the job at hand. Pietro Couciero, is the FIA WEC safety car driver, and he will lead the field away momentarily in the Porsche 911, one of two that are used for leading the cars to the green or under a Full Course Yellow situation. Another four-time Le Mans winner, Yannick Dalmas, he is another of the safety car drivers for WEC. So perhaps he too will be assisting Pietro Couciero today. Not sure.
Ah. There are two safety cars. Pietro in one and Yannick in the other. The white and red Bahrain flag is being shown to the crowd. Three minutes before the formation lap. Titles are up for grabs. A great variety of tracks and different race formats in WEC, and yet, we still have an extremely close title fight. The eight-hour race today offers points and a half, 38 points for victory. This is only two hours longer than a six-hour event. The strategies, even with two extra hours tacked onto the board, don't change that greatly. But you can be creative with your strategies, nonetheless. I ought to have said that the six hour race strategy remains pretty uniform.
Here in Bahrain, the teams will be able to mix it up a bit. Gianmaria Bruni has been a double FIA WEC champion but never a world champion even though he has been a Le Mans winner in his career, four times, and the first time as a Porsche driver. Tire pressure checking on the rear left tire of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. OK. Don't be headed for the pit lane on the formation lap. That is not a good thing. Just remind me about how things are working. We want to watch the action and in the last hour, we'll figure out how things are going to work out. The starting grid shows Ferrari and Porsche alongside each other on the first two rows of the GTE Pro grid.
The #38 Jota Oreca in LMP2, they can win the title if they have a trouble-free race today and finish sixth or better in the standings. Behind them there are permutations all ovet the shop. The engines have fired up. The Bahrain flag waves, in the hands of Mohammed bin Sulayem, FIA President, and 14-time champion in Middle East rallying. This is the sixth and final race of FIA WEC 2022 and GTE Pro sees their final race ever. The final hurrah for the factory hot rods, the factory supercars. We go through the starting grid and if you are watching the taped broadcast, or watched the race live, it is scrolling across the bottom of your screen on your mobile device.
Today could very well be Mexican veteran driver Roberto Gonzalez's last WEC race. Could we see him back next year? We don't quite know yet. 37 cars in total are set to start the final WEC race of 2022. There are nerves, but they are pegging the adrenaline. The drivers are relatively nervous but are ready to go and the pit crews will be more enrvous. Here comes the field. Drag race to turn one. Here we go. The safety car pulls off. Punch it! Red lights, on. Red lights, out! Away we go! The Toyota's and Peugeot's file into lead formation but behind them it is a land rush! It is five, six wide deep in the pack! How on earth will every file down to a sensible order before turn one?
Sebastien Buemi leads into turn one. Nico Lapierre picks off Gustavo Menezes immediately in the battle of the French cars. Alpine vs. Peugeot. United Autosports making the long pass on RealTeam by WRT. Watch out for the dirt, the sand on the side of the road. We are in the desert after all. Alpine pass one of the Toyota's in the first handful of corners here at the Sakhir circuit. GTE Pro is hot and heavy already, look, as the #92 Porsche is making it's way past both AF Corse Ferrari's! No one will roll over and play dead in GTE Pro just because this marks the final race in the history of the category! They are going at it hammer and tongs already!
In the slow corners, Toyota and Peugeot are not able to use their hybrid boost and that is why the Alpine is motoring already. No hybrid boost for the Alpine boys to fiddle with or worry about. Whoops! We have a spinner, and it is Christian Ried in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche facing the wrong direction up the road. He started tgird in GTE Am and is the first spinner at turn ten and he had an assist. We'll look for a replay. Kevin Estre pokes his nose in front and Gianmaria Bruni is the meat in the Ferrari sandwich after starting on GTE Pro pole. Safety car! Well, well, well. This is a fascinating turn of events. Safety car deployed on lap one of an eight-hour motor race. Well, would you look at that folks.
Christian Ried on the outside of the corner, spins, and it looks like mechanical failure. Oh dear. The half shaft is gone on the left rear of that car. Jeepers creepers! The sister #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche had issues in qualifying yesterday. Fred Poordad, sharing with Patrick Lindsey and Jan Heylen, so that car has two Americans and a Dutchman on the driver's strength, and of course Christian Ried is sharing the #77 sister car that has rotated on the whirligig, with Sebastian Priaulx and Harry Tincknell. With the safety car on the road the pit lane entry is closed. At the moment the pit lane will stay open under Full Course Yellow. Full Course Yellow will close the pit lane next yeaer for safety. Well, what a relief! Christian Ried is back up and running again.
That means he probably had a gearbox hiccup on the car, got the thing out of neutral, and is back on his way. We saw issues at the start of the race for the #93 Peugeot. What has happened there? We'll take a good look at the replay and see. Kevin Estre started passing cars immediately after the red lights went out. You cannot pass cars before the start/finish line and Estre began doing so nowhere near where the line is on the front stretch. Christian Ried is catching up with the back of the crocodile as the safety car is about to dive back into the pit lane. Alpine are the ones to watch in the Hypercar class because we can see they are able to turn on the tire performance of their Michelin's before anyone else. Peugeot and Toyota with their two car efforts, will have to wait a lap or two for their fresh sets of boots to come up to temperature.
Nicklas Nielsen and Miro Konopka started on the same row of the grid in LMP2 and while Nielsen has been moving up, Miro Konopka has dropped like a stone to 16th place. Konopka bailed and now Alpine run third in Hypercar just behind the Toyota and the Peugeot. Paul Loup Chatin has passed Ryan Cullen in LMP2. Give one spot to Richard Mille Racing and demote Vector Sport one spot in that exchange. Jose Maria Lopez looks to pass Nico Lapierre and Lapierre says "no you don't, sunshine" and slams the door in his face. The Toyota has the legs down a long straightaway and so we'll see it gain steam on the run out of the final turn and into the first turn.
Meantime, we can see Ryan Cullen is taking no prisoners and he is pressing, biffing and barging his way by the #45 Algarve Pro LMP2 entry. That is the car in the hands of Aussie James Allen sharing with American Stephen Thomas and Austrian Rene Binder. There was a bit of a shemozzle between the #10 and #1 and now Paul Loup Chatin is eking out a gap over the #10 machine. Hardy har har. Yours truly is chuckling because Christian Ried, our pal in the #77 Porsche that spun out, he currently holds fastest lap of the motor race over anyone else including all the prototypes! Who'd have seen that coming?! That's a little bit of something to celebrate I do believe. I'll toast that with a hot cocoa here on a cold winter's day in the western hemisphere.
2:02.6 for Christian Ried, but that was while he was steaming along at full speed trying to catch the crocodile behind the safety car. There was a gap between Sebastien Buemi and Paul di Resta on the restart. Nico Lapierre is the one making the big moves as we speak as this race has only just gotten underway. Lopez nips Lapierre into turn one and so #7 passes #36. Lapierre is trying to come back. He is in attack mode and wants the place that Jose Maria Lopez snatched from him. Lapierre is hunting, looking, probing in the slipstream. No dice, and the Frenchman shall have to hold station for now.
Lopez is still slithering around so that Toyota, the #7 car is hunting for traction on the circuit. Di Resta is hanging onto Buemi's coat tails right now with just three laps in the bag. The downhill section is just a one groove racetrack, but you can gain and try to make a slingshot pass into the corner in turns nine and ten. That is the best passing opportunity on this side of the Sakhir circuit. Peugeot, believe they have a better race car than they did in qualifying and as the conditions cool off from the heat of the day into the relative cool of a desert night, the Peugeot's may very well come to the fore. Sara Bovy leads Ben Keating in GTE Am. So, you have Iron Dames Ferrari ahead of TF Sport Aston Martin in that battle.
Ferrari #54 all over the curbs! That is Thomas Flohr in the AF Corse entry, the silver car. Flohr, the Swiss driver sharing with his season long co-driver Francesco Castellaci of Italy, and New Zealander Nick Cassidy is the third driver on the team this weekend. Many Am drivers are starting this race. Wow! Christoph Ulrich gets really loose, and he is passed by a driver in his first WEC race, Philip "P.J." Hyett. Hyett, the American, from Chicago, Illinois, is making his first start, alongside fellow American Gunnar Jeanette, a veteran of endurance racing, and Englishman Ben Barnicoat, for Team Project 1 in a driver lineup shuffle in the second of their two team cars.
Gunnar Jeanette is P.J. Hyett's driver coach. The two of them are going full-time racing in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship in 2023. Good scrap, look, in LMP2 between Jonathan Aberdein, the South African, and Frenchman Francois Heriau. That is a battle between Jota and Ultimate. Kevin Estre in qualifying had to uncork a banker lap in the session and in doing so was seconds off the LMP2 pace which is why he has the factory Porsche mired among the LMP2 runners as we speak. Filipe Albuquerque is the LMP2 leader for United Autosport although he is under the stewards' microscope for an off track excursion just after the red lights went out.
United Autosport will argue their rivals from RealTeam left Albuquerque zero racing room. That's small potatoes in a race this long. Just forget it and keep on trucking. #54 over the curbs in the final corner and he has a clatter with one of the other Ferrari's in GTE Am, the #21 machine for AF Corse! That is Christoph Ulrich, the Swiss driver, sharing with Simon Mann from England and Finland's Toni Vilander. There is zero grip off track here in Bahrain and I mean zero. Peugeot, after their reintroduction to the WEC, they now seem to be uncorking genuine speed. This is the final time they can see how they are doing. No excuses in 2023 with the new contenders coming.
We have Porsche, Ferrari, and Cadillac on the horizon to race against Peugeot, Toyota, and perhaps Glickenhaus. Ferrari will be testing at Sebring early next year. Peugeot will do the same and Cadillac have begun testing for both WEC and IMSA as they have programs on both sides of the pond. Gianmaria Bruni is now right on Antonio Fuoco's six. This is all about endurance, not ragging the car to the limit on every lap. Keep your minimum speed up. Open wheel racing does not teach you that if you are a Formula 1 or IndyCar driver for instance. You often double stint tires. The next stint is bound to pay dividends. First stint, tenths of a second, and seconds in the second stint. So it will build and build as the race goes on.
Bruni still right on top of Fuoco. Ferrari #51 is where they want to be. If #91 finishes ahead of #52 that won't be enough for Ferrari to clinch. Ferrari #52 off the road! Wow! This is serious! We are not even 15 minutes into this race now and we are seeing the action heat up like mad already. Bruni is now just two points down on the sister #92 Porsche. Mathematically, Antonio Fuoco can also win the title. That is not James Calado in the #51. All four of these cars can be champions. #91 has taken back a place over the Ferrari's and James Calado is nursing his tires, biding his time, not doing anything rash. Play the long game. This is the final eight hours of a long season. You must be patient. Do not throw caution to the wind whatever you do.
Paul Di Resta remains the meat in a Toyota sandwich. Sebastien Buemi in #8 leads with Di Resta in Peugeot #93 second and third place sees Jose Maria Lopez holding the fort in Toyota #7. Car #8 came into Bahrain a point ahead of the #36 Alpine. Of the 37 starters in this race, 16 of them could very well win a championship title today. Alas, we are only in hour one of an eight-hour motor race. Anything can and probably will happen. The #9 Prema LMP2 car dropped out of contention after not scoring LMP2 pole in qualifying. In LMP2 the battle is between #1 and #45. Richard Mille Racing Team vs. Algarve Pro. Paul Loup Chatin being chased by James Allen.
Nicklas Nielsen is third in LMP2. Jonathan Aberdein is running just ahead of Miro Konopka and today marks Miro Konopka's last career World Endurance Championship race start. ARC Bratislava will leave WEC with a championship in their pocket, but they will be back in the Gulf region for the Asian Le Mans Series coming up in February of 2023. We are seeing the #28 Jota LMP2 car moving up. Sebastien Buemi is now carving his way through the GTE Am traffic. Paul Di Resta is chasing. Peugeot is not Buemi's issue, but it is the sister Toyota #7. #7 could still win the title to be honest. Is one car more reliable than the other? To clarify the situation, the only way the #7 Toyota can take the Hypercar title is if the sister #8 and the #36 Alpine both drop out of the event and fail to finish, thus failing to score any points.
It will be a long shot for the #7 car, but as so often is true in motor racing, anything can happen. Di Resta is balked, by one of the Project 1 Porsche's but does get by. Now then, I think Jose Maria Lopez is just a tad too far back behind Di Resta. Jose Maria Lopez has two of these GTE Am Porsche's to pass. The Project 1 car and the GR Racing car. I can't say which Project 1 car he is trying to pass. I think it is the #56. It is. Di Resta is bottled up behind the Ferrari, the Silver #54 AF Corse Am entry. It appears #7 is coming, and fast. I mean, Jose Maria Lopez is really turning up the wick here.
Pit stop time, as to the lane comes the #1 Richard Mille Racing Oreca LMP2 machine. Clearly there may be a problem for the #1. We have only been racing now for 20 minutes. He had a slow getaway at lights out. Andrew Baker is a man who has been a part of the GR Racing Porsche team for a long time. We fondly remember Andrew Baker's daughter Amy who passed away just a short time ago. Our prayers and condolences go out to you and your family, Andy. God Bless You. So, the #1 car is in the lane changing a right front Michelin tire and we shall find out why shortly. Pit reporter for the WEC, Louise Beckett, she is on the spot and we'll find out from her what happened, soon.
In LMP2, the leading #22 car has run ten laps. Peugeot are beginning to make the 9X8 work even though the car is designed to not have a rear wing of any kind. Peugeot needs reliability and then they will be able to fight for Hypercar honors and take said fight to Toyota, and others who are coming into the category for the future. A good battle in GTE Am that is very entertaining, is what we are watching now. This is a scrap between two Ferrari's for Iron Dames and Spirit of Race. Sara Bovy vs. Pierre Ragues. Bovy was the polesitter in class.
The Spirit of Race entry is run by AF Corse. Next year we are going to see Toyota, Peugeot, and Jota Porsche as three of the teams. These teams are ones Anthony Davidson, our expert correspondent, he has driven for all of them. The future is bright in World Endurance and in sports car racing as a whole. Sara Bovy's job, and she is well aware of this, is for her to be quicker than the Bronze rated drivers in the other GTE Am automobiles. Sebastien Buemi's job, right now, is to keep Toyota in the lead and fend off the challenge of that pesky Peugeot.
You don't have to start with your lowest ranked driver and can start with your highest ranked one. If you qualified out of place in LMP2, start with your fastest driver. Here's a replay of an incident in slow motion. Ah. One of the LMP2 cars is making a banzai move down the inside of a GTE Am Porsche. Too much ambitious, and, oh! Ker-runch! That was more than ambitious as the Algarve Pro LMP2 car chops across and whacks the side of the D'station Aston Martin! That there, was a king size mistake! Man, oh man!
That was James Allen putting himself in a place, making a move on the road that was not on. He went in way too hot and now one of the mounting points for the bodywork on that #45 machine is totally busted. He is now languishing, trying to pass Sean Gelael in the #31 WRT Oreca. But, I don't think it is going to work out well for him. Calm down. Avoid damage. There could be a penalty. Allen locked the brakes trying to pass Sean Gelael. Respect each other but make efficient passes with multiple classes on the track at once. Roberto Gonzalez is up the road and Sean Gelael wants to move in on him for a pass.
Sebastien Buemi leads Paul Di Resta by a second and a half, but the gap is not opening up by any means. Toyota are the benchmark for pace at every track the WEC visits and now, Peugeot are keeping them honest, pegging them, saying, "you blokes are not going to get away from us. We've got your number. Look out." Filipe Albuquerque and United Autosport lead LMP2. Roberto Gonzalez is sixth in class, the lowest placing where they can still take the class title. Gonzalez is burning his time, as the lowest rated driver in class while everyone else has their Pro drivers in the LMP2 cars. Roberto Gonzalez knows what he has to do. If a professional driver comes up on you, let him go, don't fight him.
Gonzalez is a veteran. He knows what is going on and this isn't his first rodeo. Sean Gelael, too, is a very good reference as WRT have a strong package as well but he is totally under duress from James Allen in the #45 car, the LMP2 Pro Am contender, a Gold rated driver. Allen wants to make the pass. Felael has the place covered and he does the cutback and Allen cannot get there. Calm down. Get on with the program, mate. In the meantime, Mike Wainwright has the wheel of the #86 GR Racing Porsche but has been warned for a final time about track limits. If he goes outside of them he will have to pay a penalty.
We come back to the GTE Pro scrap. Enjoy this because it is the final time in history, we are going to see anything like it in World Endurance competition. James Calado says his tires are really hot and he is trying everything to keep them in the temperature window. His engineer says, "copy. Save the tires as much as possible." This is the key. Keep your lap times up but do not expend your tires early doors. If you do, that will really put you on the back foot as the race unwinds and continues. Kevin Estre is also doing tire management,bR but he seems happy with the car as he is controlling the race at the top of the shop in GTE Pro. Braking for turn one and James Allen is in a spot of bother again, look. He locks up the rear tires and almost plows right into the back of Roberto Gonzalez!
That #45 Algarve Pro entry, I have to wonder. The handling on that machine is not optimum right now. Sean Gelael has just made a pass and he is now embroiled in this scrum with Gelael and with Roberto Gonzalez and now, Allen looks as though he has passed Gonzalez back by. #38 could have a minor edge on their tires as the stints go one. LMP2 cars have now completed 16 laps. Four laps from now the LMP2 pit window opens. We may see the two car teams bring one in a lap early before pitting the other to avoid the dreaded double stacking in the pit lane.
The Hypercars have the legs in a straight line, but the GTE cars are so much more planted and so much more balanced into the corners around the Sakhir circuit here in Bahrain. Porsche #92 has run 15 laps, 50 miles. This is a 3.363-mile layout here in Bahrain which is just shy of five and a half kilometers. The Hypercar drivers have to overtake in a straight line. Veteran LMP2 drivers telling their younger and less experienced co-drivers, "the GTE cars will be brutal! They will not make room for you no matter what you do!" #52, the Ferrari is now all over the #91 Porsche. Fuoco chasing Bruni. Bruni lets the Alpine go, but now he has his countryman, Fuoco, right on his six.
The pressure is on. Be brave on the brakes and no dice there. James Calado says the Ferrari has too much oversteer. He does not have power compared to the sister car as well. Fuoco is just lighting the afterburners. A lot will change though. There's a long, long, long way to go. Keep pushing the team. Drivers demand answers from their teams. Now, we see the Peugeot flying past the GTE Pro cars. But, for comparison, the GTE mid corner speed is higher than the downforce prototypes. The GTE Pro cars have been absolutely incredible, and we are going to miss them. We don't lose these drivers battling each other.
These same drivers will stick around as they are just stepping up to the Hypercar category with their respective teams. We will be seeing the Porsche 963 and the Ferrari 499P battling each other. That is going to be extraordinary to watch. The weapon will be different, moving from a sword to a pistol shall we say. All the championship battles are lit up. Toyota leads both of the Peugeot's by the better part of two seconds. In the LMP2 class United Autosport and RealTeam are pushing each other but may have penalties in their future. We have the scrap going between Gelael and Allen as well. A Pro driven LMP2 vs. a Pro-Am driven LMP2. Same cars, but different levels of drivers at the wheel of each one.
WRT have always had speed around the Bahrain circuit. Antonio Fuoco is still pushing hard. Both Gianmaria Burni and Antonio Fuoco are catching Kevin Estre as Fuoco makes the pass on Bruni and Bruni is going to push like mad. The Porschenught just have a tad more straight-line speed. James Calado is still in the fight. He may be feeling something in the car that he is grousing about. However, his performance is still there. Sometimes racing drivers can feel things they are unsure of and click the radio to say "I need to change the car setup, so it feels better." In reality, the car is just fine and that is why you hear the crew chief reply "just get on with the job, mate. Keep going."
Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy, and Corvette Racing have been slowed down considerably on Balance of Performance. So, the C8.R is in the never, never right now. Calado passes Bruni again and the two of them have cooled off but there is a ton of clag in the corner. These two have to stay clean because they could also be champions. Both Porsche's and both Ferrari's are in championship contention. Ferrari only has to play blocker with the #52 for the #51 if Porsche fails to finish or even if the Corvette drops out with a problem. WRT 3/10ths ahead of Algarve Pro as Jonathan Aberdein in the #28 Jota LMP2 car and Miro Konopka in the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP2 Oreca hit the pit lane for standard, routine service.
Konopka very well could have taken tires. We'll see. Ah. Filipe Albuquerque is now in the lane from the lead of LMP2. Fuel only for the #28. No tires in LMP2 at this stage. Paul Di Resta has ten laps to his pit stop. RealTeam by WRT is in the lane. Paul Di Resta worrying about the gearshift actuators and the transmission on the Peugeot. Peugeot hope for no maladies in the reliability department as they are showing the speed, running just three and a half seconds behind Sebastien Buemi currently. Both of the Peugeot 9X8's had transmission issues this past summer at the Monza race, the 6 Hours of Monza. In the lane, tires for Ferdinand Habsburg for tires, fuel, and a drink.
So, RealTeam WRT might be pushing hard on the tires. That was a single stint on tires. Habsburg might do a triple stint even with the heat. Or maybe he is doing only a double. Maybe taking fuel will be the wise thing to do. In GTE Pro, watch the rear axle load. In GTE Pro we will see far more two tire stops than full four tire stops. That is the nature of the circuit here in Bahrain that will dictate pit strategy for the production-based cars. After his early spin, Christien Ried has worked his way back up to seventh spot in GTE Am. I think he just spun the car. Proton Competition will race Hypercar with a Porsche 963 next year.
James Calado's tire issues seem to have been resolved and now, Bruni is playing defense. The tires will be accumulating pickup, accumulating clag, earlier than expected. Lifting earlier, the GTE Pro cars are pressing the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 car. Satoshi Hoshino, the experienced Japanese racer, he is being warned for track limits in the #777 D'station Aston Martin, but this is after being tagged in the door by an LMP2 car that had tried overtaking too many cars. That is a ridiculous warning. 45 minutes of the race gone. The battle for eighth in LMP2 is indeed between the two Jota Sport entries with Roberto Gonzalez in #38 holding that place, and Jonathan Aberdein in the #28 wanting to steal it.
Tire saving is part of playing the game in endurance racing because you just do not have enough sets of tires to change on every fuel stop. Double, triple stinting tires is a major deal and these drivers are well aware of those factors. Jota team boss David Clark says that one of the reasons they will bring a Porsche 963 into Hypercar next year is so they can get away from having two identical cars and not being able to tell which one is which. They will still run an LMP2 car as well. But it will be easier to differentiate between the Porsche 963 Hypercar and the Oreca LMP2 machine for next year. That will be a huge relief too, for fans, and for bloggers like me.
Toyota vs. Peugeot at the front. Paul Di Resta is really upset about the gearshift performance on the 9X8 saying the (expletive) gearshift is (expletive) terrible. It is getting much worse. He said,"it is worse than useless". Well, well, well. From nowhere, we have a 1-2 for United Autosport in LMP2. A driver change at RealTeam now puts Rui Andrade into the car. Robert Kubica and Paul Loup Chatin have stayed in their cars. Peugeot's Loic Duval looking on as we sort out LMP2 drivers. Roberto Gonzalez is told to let a faster car through.
Rui Andrade is into the RealTeam car. Chatin and Gelael continue their battle ahead of Gonzalez and Aberdein. Francois Perrodo has taken over the #83 AF Corse entry and now, Renger van der Zande has taken over from Ryan Cullen at Vector Sport in the #10 LMP2 car. Alex Lynn is now in second place in the second United Autosport entry. Alex Lynn will be driving for Cadillac in WEC next year. Meantime, Antonio Fuoco is speedy, and he has caught Kevin Estre looking for a pass. Fuoco is starting to come back and now,he is going to go for a move around Estre.
He has caught the Frenchman and now, he is lining him up down the short chut. No overtaking off the road and around the outside, Fuoco tries keeping it on track and Fuoco has to back off and let Estre stay ahead. They cannot afford damage but cannot afford to let their rival whistle off into the distance. Fuoco is lunging down the inside! What will he do? He's got it. Estre has run really deep into the corner. Deep enough that he can do the over/under. Estre is now side by side with Fuoco to turn nine! Over the hump, and now, Fuoco gains it back down the hill to the hairpin turn.
Fuoco does the switchback ajd Estre pops out but the Italian slams the door in his face. Estre won't quit! How much grip did Fuoco have to cut back inside of Estre? Watch the background. You have the sister cars right in there too. You have Calado and Gianmaria Bruni both gaining in a big hurry. No further action from the stewards on the contretemps between #52 and #91 that we saw earlier. Calado was indeed behind Bruni, backed off, and Fuoco caught up. Everything overheats. The Ferrari is turbocharged and needs airflow. Poor old Estre has laid down black streaks from the tires and Bruni is beginning to push.
Estre is in a pickle. How well are the tires holding up? In the meantime, the #36 Alpine is in pit lane for a driver change and routine service. Nico Lapierre out and into the car is Matthieu Vaxiviere. Alpine lacking pace compared to the Toyota's and the Peugeot's. There's so much straightaway and high speed straightaway here in Bahrain. Unbelievably, this track in Bahrain was built 18 years ago back in 2004 and has never been resurfaced. You would think by now the track operators would have gone through at least one repaving procedure. Not on your life, mate.
27 laps now on the board for the #8 Toyota. 91 miles in the bag. A long, long, long way to go yet. Toyota #8 leads Peugeot #93 by four seconds or thereabouts. Alpine back on track in fifth place. Jota have different colored wheel nuts on the car. Toyota #7 team manager being summoned to the Race Director. Edoardo Freitas wants a word with Toyota Gazoo Racing. Uh oh. What could that be about? No further action on the penalty. Nico Lapierre is sapped. Drivers are brutalized driving these cars and it is hard to explain to laypeople how endurance racing works. Driving a car hides how hard it is to be an athlete. Sebastien Buemi now has qualifying tires on the #8 and the same is true for the Alpine. 29 laps in the book now.
241 days since we started this season in Sebring, Florida. AF Corse #52 lead GTE Pro, United Autosport are 1-2 in LMP2. James Allen leads the Pro-Am part of LMP2. Toyota leads overall and Hypercar. Identical pit times for Sean Gelael and James Allen who are still scrapping as we have talked about. James Allen will be tiring of this scrap in a wee while. Overtaking is a bear. Peugeot diving for the pit lane. Paul Di Resta is in from second spot for fuel and for a driver change at the very least, I think. The #22 United Autosports LMP2 entry has copped a penalty for overtaking outside track limits and that shall equal ten seconds added to their next pit stop.
#22 has 19 seconds in hand over Alex Lynn. Left side tires going onto the #93 Peugeot before it is dropped off the air jacks and he is down and away. Toyota have not pitted their cars yet. If #94 pits, one of the Toyota's might also come in yet. Peugeot are not risking running out of gas in the first stint of a long motor race. They are working through their strategies as the #7 comes in with the leading #8 staying out completing 31 laps. Jose Maria Lopez may go for the undercut. No tires for #7. #94 is also in at Peugeot. Fuel at Toyota. Paul Di Resta took left side tires only on the #93 Peugeot and so what will happen for #94?
You can only change tires after refueling is complete.
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