Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar Manufacturers’ World Championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the 2024 FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing hours created high drama.
With a relatively tame first half, the season finale came alive in the final three hours, as the string of yellows kept the field bunched up and set up a sprint finish. Battles raged up and down the order in both categories with time winding down and the ambient temperature falling, producing a number of surprise results — in the case of Hypercar, having championship implications.
As for the titles, the No. 8’s charge to the front in the final hour saw Toyota claim Manufacturer honors out of nowhere. The polesitting car looked down and out when it was turned into a spin in the opening hour by a TF Sport Corvette, costing the 2023 champions valuable track position, but they never gave up, and through a combination of willpower and tire strategy, found a way back into contention.
When Sebastien Buemi was strapped in for the run to the flag, he was in the zone and on a mission. After the final round of pit stops, which saw the car climb to second, he found himself in a straight fight with Porsche’s No. 5 car for the championship.
Buemi then promptly caught and passed Matt Campbell with a bold move for the win with 39 minutes remaining. The Australian was unable to respond once Buemi found a way through and eventually crossed the line third.
Second place slipped away in heartbreaking fashion on the final lap, when Antonio Giovinazzi found a way past in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which led the majority of the race but lost precious time to a longer final pit stop.
“That was maybe my best drive,” Buemi said after the race. “The early contact put us on the back foot, but it’s always a long game and our strategy was to make sure we saved some great tires for the end of the race.
“When I jumped back into the car, we were down in 10th and I honestly thought we had no chance to come back, but with our tire advantage I was able to make some moves and I knew the No. 5 would begin struggling at some point. In the end, everything fell into place perfectly.”
“We saved tires for the end and Seb delivered,” added teammate Brendon Hartley. “We wanted to spoil the Porsche party and we did. It feels good to get a win going into the winter break.”
Despite Toyota’s miraculous turnaround, all was not lost for Porsche. In the drivers title race, Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor clung on in the No. 6 963, despite finishing outside the top 10.
It was a rollercoaster outing for the trio, who endured their worst result of the season after spending more than half the race recovering from a messy start.
Vanthoor, who was behind the wheel when the lights went out, dropped from sixth to dead last on lap one following contact with title rival Miguel Molina in the No. 50 Ferrari at Turn 4. A metronomic run for multiple hours put them back in podium contention, but their hard work was undone when a drive-through penalty for an FCY violation and two 5s time penalties for incidents dropped them to 11th.
Luckily, an equally disastrous outing for their title rivals in the No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari allowed them to seal it with a non-points finish.
The No. 7 retired with a recurring fuel pump issue which struck hard after Nyck de Vries took the lead in the fifth hour and the No. 50 limped home in 12th.
Ferrari’s Le Mans winning 499P failed to feature, struggling for pace after the contact at Turn 1 forced Miguel Molina in for an early nose change, then suffered a puncture when it was hit by an Alpine in the penultimate hour.
“A horrible race, a really horrible one,” Vanthoor said after becoming a Hypercar World Champion. “But we did the baseline for this throughout the season, with great strategy and a great car. That’s why we are world champions today.
“It has to sink in. It’s one of the best days of my life. Besides this race, we were flawless; we were the perfect group.”
For Peugeot, Saturday’s race didn’t produce a fairytale end to its tough season, but the No. 93 9X8 finishing fourth will serve as a confidence boost for the team ahead of winter. Mikkel Jensen pushed hard at the end and managed to beat the No. 35 Alpine home.
Update: The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari lost its second-place finish to a post-race penalty for using too many tires during the race (28 instead of 26), and is now classified 14th after being handed a 4m55s time penalty for the infraction. Peugeot therefore sneaks onto the podium and the No. 5 is up to second.
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LMGT3 had high drama as well. Vista AF Corse’s No. 55 Ferrari held off TF Sport’s Corvettes to claim the Italian team’s second victory of the season and second in a row after the sister car won in Fuji.
Alessio Rovera was masterful late in the race, surviving a lengthy duel with an emotionally charged Charlie Eastwood, racing this weekend in memory of his late father.
“We managed to do it. My teammates (Simon Mann and Francois Heriau) did an amazing job managing the tires early, because the key was the last three hours,” Rovera said.
“I had new tires at the end and the fight with the Corvette was really nice. It was fair because we didn’t touch. It’s a win we deserved because we were really close to podiums all season.”
Eastwood followed Rovera home in the No. 81, crossing the line 3s back, ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the No. 82. It wasn’t a win, but it was by far the most impressive outing from the new Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R in WEC competition yet.
“It kind of sums up our season again – a story of what could have been without the safety car,” Eastwood’s teammate Rui Andrade summarized. “We were ahead by about 40s beforehand. We were in a good rhythm and had good pace, but I was kind of in no man’s land because we didn’t take tires on my second stint.
“We were hoping the strategy would pay off, and Charlie would get new tires and back into the lead. Nevertheless, I’m really happy to finish the season with such strong races back-to-back-to-back. Since COTA, the car has been super-strong and the team has done a great job making it faster and faster.”
Off the podium, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini came from nowhere to take fourth and Morris Schuring steered Manthey EMA’s Porsche to fifth.
Further down the order, the two McLarens that locked out the front row in Qualifying fell away after a strong start to the race. The No. 59 ended up sixth and the No. 95 dropped to eighth.
They finished ahead of the title-winning Pure Rxcing Porsche which could only muster ninth, and both the Iron Dames Lamborghini and Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
All three looked to be in the running for victory in the second half of the race due to the timing of the first safety car, which fell at the right time and saw them rise up the order. In the late-race melee, though, they faded and failed to retain top five positions.
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