Porsche’s protest against the GTE Pro race result in the 8 Hours of Bahrain was rejected by the Stewards late last night, the protest coming after a hectic closing few minutes of what had even an excellent battle between the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado and the #92 Porsche of Neel Jani and Kevin Estre, joined for the race by Michael Christensen.
It came down to Christensen vs Pier Guidi in the last 12 minutes with the Porsche holding off the Ferrari.
A mix-up though involving a passing LMP2 car saw the Ferrari hit the rear of the Porsche, spinning Christensen around and out of the lead.
He recovered and continued though c.12 seconds down with Race Control rapidly responding to say that the Ferrari had to give back the position.
Moments later though as Pier Guidi slowed dramatically on the pit straight to obey the instruction, Christensen pitted, the Porsche in need of a splash of fuel to complete the race.
The Ferrari continued and Pier Guidi too pitted at the end of the next lap, emerging ahead of the Porsche and making no further attempt to hand back the position, the instruction to do so having apparently been rescinded.
The win gave Ferrari the FIA GTE Manufacturers World Championship and Pier Guidi and Calado their second FIA WEC GTE World Driver Championship titles.
Tempers were high post race, Pier Guidi visibly upset with the turn of events, Neel Jani expressing his anger during a live TV interview with the Ferrari crew.
Porsche then filed a protest which challenged the decision-making process, stating that the decision should have been made not by Race Control, but by the Stewards of the meeting.
That was rejected by the Stewards who confirmed that they had indeed been consulted at every stage of the decision-making process.
The results have now been published subject to appeal with Ferrari currently confirmed as Champions.
