Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi claimed overall victory Saturday (Nov. 8) in the BAPCO Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, the season finale for the FIA World Endurance Championship. It is the manufacturer’s one and only win of the year.
The margin of victory was 19.378 seconds over their teammates Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen were third, followed by teammates James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessando Pier Guidi. The customer AF Corse Ferrari of Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye were fifth.
The fourth-place finish for the No. 51 Ferrari was good enough to give Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi the 2025 Hypercar championship. The final margin was 16 points over Hanson, Kubica and Ye.
Conway started from pole in his Toyota GR010 Hybrid. In the opening laps, he was able to open up a gap over teammate Hartley.
The first three hours of the race were clean. There were no full course cautions, virtual safety cars or full safety car periods.
That held up until early in the fourth hour. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Jenson Button and BMW M Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde were fighting for position when they encountered the slower Ferrari of Vista AF Corse’s Thomas Flohr.
Entering turn 1, Button was able to clear van der Linde for the position. However, they were forced to split Flohr. Contact was made, resulting in Flohr going hard into the tires.
Flohr walked away from the crash, but was out on the spot. Button was judged to be responsible for the incident and was forced to serve a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty on his next pit stop.
The pit stops that came during the virtual safety car period after the crash more or less equalized things. The Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas ended up with the freshest tires in fifth overall.
Once the race restarted, the Aston Martin Valkyrie was on the move. The Bahrain International Circuit has never been repaved since it opened in 2005. As a result, tires mean a lot.
Riberas was able to climb up from fifth on the restart to take the overall lead from Buemi. It is the first time that the non-hybrid Valkyrie led a race in the WEC.
The race was more or less decided at the beginning of the final hour. BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor spun exiting turn 11 by himself and was unable to resume. He thought that he had lost a wheel, but he hadn’t.
The incident occurred right as teams were beginning to make their final pit stops. The Aston Martins had stopped right beforehand and lost a bunch of positions. Others were able to make their final stops during the two-lap virtual safety car period. De Vries was in the second group, having taken over the lead 15 laps earlier when Calado had stopped to hand over to Pier Guidi.
As a result, de Vries ended up with the overall lead. With fresh rubber and good pace, he was able to drive away to take the victory.
Toyota dominated much of the action. Their two cars combined to lead 215 of 237 laps. They were only really off of the point due to pit sequences or alternate strategies.
In LMGT3, Akkodis ASP Team’s Arnold Robin started from pole in his Lexus. Iron Lynx’s Andrew Gilbert started second, but was immediately usurped by teammate Martin Berry.
Further back, Petru Umbrarescu in the second Akkodis Lexus started fourth and moved up to third during the first stint of the race. During the first round of pit stops, Clemens Schmid got in the No. 87. An excellent stop resulted in Schmid ending up in the class lead.
From that point on, the battle was on between the Akkodis No. 87 Lexus and the Iron Lynx No. 61 Mercedes at the front. The two teams swapped the lead multiple times during the race.
The virtual safety car for Vanthoor’s incident came out just as Jose Maria Lopez and Maxime Martin were making their final pit stops. The final 30 minutes ended up being a heads-up duel between the two drivers. The former Toyota Gazoo Racing regular was able to hold off Martin for the second win of the year for himself, Schmid and Umbrarescu. They are the only LMGT3 repeat winners of the season.
The margin of victory was .786 seconds over Berry, Martin and Lin Hodenius. The Heart of Racing’s Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon were third in their Aston Martin, then Manthey 1st Phorm’s Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera from the back row of the grid. Vista AF Corse’s Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera were fifth.
The fourth-place finish for Manthey 1st Phorm was enough to win the LMGT3 championship. They ended up 12 points ahead of Heriau, Mann and Rovera.
FIA World Endurance Championship BAPCO Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain Unofficial Results
For WEC teams, the end of the season does not mark the end of the weekend. Sunday will mark the annual WEC Rookie Test, where a number of drivers from outside of the Hypercar class will get the chance to check out the Hypercars. While there are no guarantees, getting a chance in the Rookie Test could eventually lead to a factory Hypercar ride. For example, Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Malthe Jakobsen was able to parlay a Rookie Test appearance in 2022 into an eventual factory ride with the team.
For instance, Lilou Wadoux will drive a Ferrari 499P. Meanwhile, Drudi will drive the Aston Martin Valkyrie.
There is one driver that was supposed to be there that will not be. By virtue of losing the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship to Jesse Love in Phoenix last weekend, Connor Zilisch will not be eligible to drive a Hypercar. He was originally scheduled to drive a Cadillac VSeries.R for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the Frontstretch Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.