LMP1
In the race that finally settled the 2014 FIA WEC Drivers World Championship there was frustration of all sorts in Bahrain for many of the LMP1 teams.
Frustration for the CLM/ Lotus team that saw the #9 car stop on lap one with its second gearbox failure of the weekend.
Frustration for the Audi team who found real speed from both of their R18 e-tron quattros but no stint long consistency, ever more up front dissatisfaction with their performance position and a hefty bill for their three full rebuilds too.
Frustration for the #12 Rebellion crew that saw a race long lead over their LMP1-L team mates evaporate as a last hour electrical issue dropped them laps down.
Frustration for Porsche whose best race performance so far saw both 919 hybrids on the podium, but neither able to ultimately provide enough to get onto terms with the winning Toyota, and frustration for the #8 Toyota team who will have wanted to celebrate their World Championship win from the podium, but with an alternator failure costing them half an hour, were left to do so from ground level.
That said we had a very good race, with gaps never far enough away to guarantee a drama free finish (that would be the domain of LMP2 this time out!).
The start of the race saw The Porsches trying to take an early advantage, they made it through the first corners as a 1,2 but by midway through the first lap the #8 Toyota was up past Brendon Hartley to second with the #7 up to third into T1 as the cars started Lap 2.
Buemi though was hunting for the lead and found it, Romain Dumas briefly took advantage of the Toyota running wide but the Swiss was soon ahead again and pulling away until the pair hit traffic, allowing the #7 Toyota and #20 Porsche, plus the #1 Audi to join in the lead battle.
The leading TS040 had the best run through the traffic and Buemi started to pull away rapidly, but a Full Course Yellow (for the removal of some debris and replacement of a bollard) saw the tactical card played – Toyota would pit both of their cars (from the lead and third), Porsche pitting the #20 from 4th, Hartley reporting a braking issue.
Thereafter it was a chase from the Toyotas, making their way through the traffic, and their LMP1 opposition, their pace in the latter part of the season has been astounding.
50 minutes in and Buemi was into second place and just 8 seconds down on the Porsche of Dumas before the leader pitted, Buemi led again before pitting to hand over #8 to Ant Davidson.
Andre Lotterer meanwhile was showing that there’s no basic lack of speed in the Audi, fastest lap of the race at this point fell to the #2. 1:46.319
Meanwhile there were battles underway for fourth Timo Bernhard takig the #20 Porsche by the #1 Audi, whilst Mike Conway, now aboard the #7 Toyota, was winning the battle for second place with the #14 Porsche of Dumas – Toyota a 1,2!
15 minutes from the end of the second hour and the #8 Toyota, seemingly in a comfortable lead, got an emergency call to pit “Alternator”
That saw the car garaged for just over 30 minutes, a seemingly comfortable lead transformed into a battle for a finish, though initial doubts that the car would re-emerge were pessimistic. A second brief stop would be the last non-routine action for the #8.
Mike Conway then led the race in the sister car and proceeded to edge away from the Porsches, the #14 would take the lead as the #7 stopped the next time but the margin was increasing, this despite the fact that the Toyota was in fuel saving mode, now in the hands of Stephane Sarrazin.
The Porsches were looking to respond and could edge into the advantage, Buemi meanwhile popped in the fastest lap of the race to show that despite the #8 Toyota trailing in the overall order there was no shortage of pace on tap.
It was rapidly becoming a game of cat and mouse between the leading trio, the Audis unable to sustain an attack, and the Toyota seemed to have gained enough of a fuel saving edge from both its early pitstop and the efforts of Sarrazin to go to the end without a splash – and so it would prove.
The race saw the first win of the 2014 season for the #7 team, the first in the #7 car for Sarrazin and the first win full stop for Conway.
Porsche meanwhile brought their cars home for their first double podium finish, but were disappointed to have fallen short of a nose to tail contest to the line.
In LMP1-L the early bath for the CLM had left it a lonely fight for the Rebellions, the #12 the pacier of the pair for almost the whole race, Heidfeld in particular finding consistent sub 1:50 speed. A late race delay for a failed battery though would cost the #12 car laps, and gift the sister #13 R-One their second win of the season.
But the real winners, courtesy of the inability of the only remaining title challengers to mount a challenge for the win (the #2 Audi crew) were the #8 crew of Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi. Now all but certain of being crowned joint World Drivers Champions.
Spare just a thought though for Nic Lapierre – If things had gone to plan he could, and perhaps should have shared the crown. As the Englishman and Swiss celebrate their career highlight to date the Frenchman waits to hear whether there is room for him in a race car from Toyota in 2015?
LMP2
This one had shock after shock to dole out with the potential Championship points position swinging from side to side time and again as the dramas unfolded.
It started right from the off with contact through T2 between the #37 SMP Oreca of Kirill Ladygin and Olivier Pla’s G-Drive Ligier, there looked indeed to have been two separate contacts, the #26 car struggling back to the pits with a broken lower wishbone and the SMP car carrying on in 3rd spot.
Worse still for the G-Drive boys was the fact that Nic Minassian had taken the lead at the start, the 7 point advantage held pre race looked destined to increase if the race ran cleanly.
The opening part of the race saw the SMP car’s Michelins faring pretty well against KCMG’s Dunlops, in fact Ladygin managed to get by the KCMG car in traffic and was looking good for a strong 1,2 run until the slow burning impact of the contact with Pla bit back, the #37’s front bodywork flying off on the start finish straight, Ladygin making for the pits for a fairly lengthy repair.
That almost dropped the #37 into the clutches of the chasing Ligier, laps down and still no looking the car it was, but the Oreca, once repaired, was back out and running consistently quickly.
Up front the KCMG Oreca was still in close proximity to the #27 SMP Oreca, Imperatori and Minassian putting on a great show but with Richard Bradley aboard vs Sergey Zlobin the battle was a little less even the young Englishman pulling a very sweet pass for the class lead.
Next drama befell the Ligier, the left rear wishbone this time, more delay and it looked like their title chances were fading rapidly, the points advantage tot he #27 now getting close to insurmountable.
That was before Minassian, now back aboard the #27 clashed with the #1 Audi, the Oreca taking the line through the corner and clipped by the Audi in the rear right, #27 spinning and then collecting the sister #37 car which was taking to the run-off in attempted avoidance.
Rather surprisingly it was the Oreca that was dealt a penalty.
The damage initially looked minor but then Minassian’s car started to smoke badly, then flame from the exhaust, the car pitting and into the garage, the clash with the Audi had cracked the diff housing and, despite frantic attempts to get the car back out it was game over, a potentially Championship winning position gone, zero points and the pendulum swung heavily in the G-Drive Ligier’s direction, a seven point deficit turned to an eight point advantage.
Quietly, effectively through the incident and accident came the #35 Morgan Judd, a second podium the reward for a solid and consistent run, David Cheng, Keiko Ihara and Mark Patterson bringing the black and pink car home.
They were overhauled in the final stages by the #37 SMP Oreca Nissan, Kirill and Anton Ladygin and Viktor Shaitar, their second place a first podium appearance by the trio.
The win though went to the KCMG squad, a fine comeback from their firs lap shunt last time out, a second win of the season, the Championship win now out of their reach but the team shaping up nicely for a planned expansion of their campaign in 2015.
GTE Pro
If LMP2 doled out the most incident packed race of the 6 Hours of Bahrain then the GTE Pro boys certainly offered up the most spectacular.
Darren Turner’s early run at the front lasted just two corners before Gimmi Bruni grabbed the advantage.
But there was no gap to speak of and time after time we had two, three or four GTE cars battling, including the leading AM cars right at the pointy end of the GTE order. The Ferrari leading the #97 Pro and #95 Am Aston (Nicki Thiim) with plenty of squabbling over the places behind, the #71 Ferrari getting stuck in with both factory Porsches.
The Porsches though would both stop under the early race Full Course Yellow.
As the light faded and the floodlights took over there was trouble for the #99 Aston Martin, Fernando Rees Trying and failing several times to get the car fully fired after taking over from Alec Macdowall, the #99 eventually pushed back into the garage for a replacement ECU. The delay would drop the Aston Martin down to the tail end of the overall order. Despite some excellent times from the crew, including WEC debutant Abdulaziz Al Faisal it would be too big a deficit to recover.
With the first scheduled stops done the Porsches held a 1,2 (due to their earlier stop) with the #97 Aston having fallen back a little courtesy of an adjustment to the rear wing in the stop, Mucke though was narrowing the deficit fast.
The #71 Ferrari of James Calado took the lead as the Porsches pitted again but that set up a simply amazing battle between the #51, 97 and #92 for third with the #91 tracking Calado in second.
The battling trio laid on a racing display of extraordinary intensity, the Ferrari managing to get by both of the cars ahead for third as Turner made his own move, taking on position and losing it in the same corner, Olaf Manthey’s reaction on camera was a classic TV moment!
Next time to the pits for the #91 Porsche and the battle for second became the battle for the lead, nose to tail lap after lap with the Aston applying the pressure and the Ferrari soaking it up!
Now though it was time for strategy to play a part and Aston Martin played a clever hand to try to lighten the load of a required splash and dash, opting instead to short fill the car at each stop, giving the car track position, a lighter fuel load and less use of the tyres at each stint – It very nearly paid off leaving Darren Turner a final push to the flag that saw him dealing first with the #71 Ferrari, then closing in fast on the #51, the gap at the flag less than 2 seconds. Electric stuff
Porsche’s early stop didn’t pay off, the 911s would finish 4th and 5th – The #71 Ferrari had been competitive throughout and third place was a great reward for Calado and Rigon’s rigours and would make a big contribution to the all important manufacturer points standings too.
Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke pushed hard for the full 6 hours and were frustrated to be second, they had though served up a classic GTE encounter throughout.
The win though went again to the #51 Ferrari of Gimmi Bruni and Toni Vilander and with the win came the Drivers championship, Bruni’s second consecutive World Championship win and his Finnish partner’s first. A class act in a top team – Deserved success.
GTE AM
It would be another dominant display by the ‘Dane Train’ #95 Aston Martin to seal the team and drivers Championships (for Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson) an emotional win for the Danes after the emotional roller coaster of 2013.
The win was the fourth of the year for the Danes, a racing ffort that has yet to finish lower than secod all season with just one race remaining.
The car was started by Nicki Thiim who drove through the Pro field to lie second overall in the early running.
The Danish Aston could only be beaten to the title by the sister #98 car but a stop go penalty for pitlane speeding for Paul Dalla Lana put paid to any realistic challenge for the lead but a splendid fightback by Dalla Lana, Nygaard and Lamy did see the #98 move ahead of the #61 and #90 Ferraris, the #90 would drop even further back after a clash from Gianluca Roda with the class leader saw the red car spun around and later dealt a stop go penalty.
Matteo Cressoni would battle back to fifth after overhauling Alexander Talkanitsa’s #61 458 but ahead the #95 would win well from a fine second place for the #81 AF Corse Ferrari, Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Andrea Bertolini mounting a fine race long attack to fend off the best efforts of the recovering #98 crew.
The #88 Proton Porsche would take fourth, ahead of the battling pair of Ferraris with the Prospeed Porsche bringing up the rear after a troubled run.
