Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez claimed the win in a 1-2 finish for Toyota to finish the 2022 FIA WEC season, as the #8 crew of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi claimed the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Championship by finishing second in Bahrain.
The #8 trio, who were level on points heading into the race meeting with Alpine Elf Team’s trio of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre, went almost unchallenged in this final encounter, in what is a title that produces some significant milestones for the team and its drivers.
“The team did a great job. We had a 1-2 in the end and won the team title and the #8 won the championship,” said driver and team principal Kobayashi after the race, in which the #8 led early before the #7 caught and passed it with just under five hours remaining, before leading the pair of GR010s home.
Notably Brendon Hartley becomes the first driver to win a World Championship in the top class of the FIA WEC with two different marques (his previous with Porsche) and Ryo Hirakawa takes the crown in his debut season with the team in Hypercar.
Alpine, in what was a fine season competing with a single grandfathered LMP1 car, didn’t have the pace in Bahrain, and finished a distant third, two laps off the lead. The team didn’t have the pace today and as a result had a quiet race, finishing up so close but yet so far to claiming a shock championship win. It was nevertheless a memorable swansong for its A480 Gibson, which will now be retired, marking the final end for the LMP1 era in sportscars.
The Alpine trio were just five points back after this one, though in the Manufacturers’ World Championship went Toyota’s way by 42 points.
As for Peugeot, the French marque’s 9X8s looked strong enough on pace to challenge Toyota early on, but mechanical woes for both cars let them down on this occasion. The #94 was the only one of the two to finish, though it crossed the line fourth, six laps off the winners and was delayed after Loic Duval hit trouble and hit system reset. The #93 meanwhile, was the first of the pair to hit trouble, grinding to a halt in the second hour of the race. Paul Di Resta stopped at Turn 1 with gearbox issues. He managed to limp back to the pits eventually, but not before an FCY period was called. The car was eventually retired after 171 laps.
“We had a bit of a shutdown, we had to reset the car. It’s a shame. But this is why we are here, to test durability, we will take lots from it, we have a lot to learn still,” Di Resta said after the first issue, and he is right, there is plenty of work to do if Peugeot are to challenge for wins and go the distance in the long races next season, lest we forget against what looks to be a significantly larger field.
Calado and Pier Guidi limp home to claim dramatic Pro title
Elsewhere in this one it was GTE Pro that provided the most drama of the other three categories, particularly in the closing stages.
After eight hours of racing the No. 52 AF Corse duo of Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina scored their first race win of the season, but it was not a comfortable race for the AF Corse team. As it turned out, this win was extremely important, not just as a confidence boost for the pair, but because it was crucial in securing the Manufacturers’s title for Ferrari and their teammates in the #51 sister car the Drivers’ crown.
For the #51 pair today, winning the title required nothing short of a herculean effort from James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The duo were forced to nurse their #51 488 GTE EVO to the finish with a major gearbox issue in the final two hours.
Prior to the issue the #51 appeared to be set to cruise to the title, as an early FCY enabled them to claim a comfortable lead as they gained time by pitting under the caution period after their main competitors stopped just before it began. The #51 then proceeded to control the race until the second half when AF Corse opted to move the #52 into the lead via team orders to help it claim second in the standings.
But these best laid plans from the Italian outfit would all unravel fast as Calado was spotted running slowly and complaining of a gearbox issue shortly after getting in for his final stint.
“This is our life,” an emotional Calado said after the race to WEC TV. “We do everything we can for this. The car was fine when I jumped in, and I heard a funny noise on fourth gear. Then we didn’t have any gears and we were stuck in fifth. I thought it was over, but we didn’t give up and we are three times world champion.”
It did appear terminal initially, as the car sounded extremely unhealthy, was losing chunks of time each lap and slipped down the order to last, with Calado forced to improvise as the car struggled on.
Pier Guidi would then have to take over for the run to the flag, and thankfully for the team he was able to manage the issue and bring it home.
After last season’s title finale saw late (controversial) drama that swung the result from Porsche to AF Corse, this time it looked like the opposite was going to happen. In the end though, while it was nervy, they finished and the final GTE Pro crown went to Calado and Pier Guidi, their third, and the Manufacturer’s title went the way of Ferrari.
Coming home second in the race was the #64 Corvette C8.R, which enjoyed a strong and surprising run to the podium after struggling for pace throughout practice and qualifying and the opening portion of the eight hours. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy drove a calculated race and made the most of the advantage they gained under FCY early in the race in the same manner as the #51, which gave them a platform to worth with and enabled them battle their way to a second place finish in Corvette’s first ever visit to Bahrain.
What’s most remarkable is that Porsche, which started the race from Pole position with its No. 91 car, faded in this one, both its cars struggling with tyre degradation and unable to keep pace as the temperatures around the circuit dropped.
As a result, the German marque was unable to capitalise on the misfortune that struck the #51 crew, and finished up third and fourth, with no titles to show for. A splash for the #91 on the very final lap did however promote the #92 to third in the race and second in the title race. That will feel like a rather disappointing result for the team however.
WRT wins the race, ‘Mighty 38’ takes the crown
LMP2 was another topsy turvy encounter, with WRT’s #31 taking a commanding win by 49 seconds over the #23 United Autosports ORECA, both cars ending the season on a high but unable to beat JOTA’s ‘Mighty 38’ to the title.
All the #38 crew of Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens needed was a sixth place finish to secure the title – so third place today made for a comfortable win in what was a quiet but confident run in the race, rising up the order, moving up to third at the very end when the PREMA team had to pit for a splash with five minutes to go.
A hugely impressive run for the #38 crew this year made them deserving winners. They claimed just one victory – at Le Mans – but their consistency, a streak of five top three finishes after the season opener at Sebring where they finished sixth, was the key to this title.
PREMA took fourth on the road in Bahrain, ahead of the #41 Realteam by WRT ORECA that completed the top five.
Further down the order, a 10th place finish in LMP2 by the #83 AF Corse ORECA secured the Pro/Am title for Nicklass Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera, who claimed their fourth Pro/Am win of the season in the process. Another title winning success for Bronze-rated Francois Perrodo, who now has fourth titles under his belt in WEC competition after GTE Am wins in 2016, 2019-20 and 2021.
First title for TF Sport as Project 1 claim 1-2 in Am
Finally, GTE Am’s title went the way of TF Sport’s Ben Keating and Marco Sorensen, in what was TF Sport’s first WEC title win after two consecutive second place finishes in the standings for Tom Ferrier’s team. Interestingly, Sorensen becomes the only driver in WEC history to win GTE Am and Pro titles with this result.
The duo, along with Henrique Chaves who didn’t compete in every race and therefore missed out on a title, finished just off the podium in fourth, but crucially ahead of their title rivals in the #98 Northwest AMR Vantage of Nicki Thiim, Paul Dalla Lana and David Pittard, who took fifth. A string of bad results cost the #98 this season. After claiming a win in Sebring and podiums at Spa and Le Mans, two fifth places and an eighth in the second half of the season cost them dearly.
Up front in the race, the Iron Dames Ferrari looked like the favourite to win this one, but Team Project 1’s Porsches slowly crept up the order and took control, claiming a 1-2 finish and leaving the all-Female Ferrari third.
The #46 Project 1 911 RSR 19 finished first, after strong drives from Mikkel Pedersen, Matteo Cairoli and Nicolas Leutwiler, while Ben Barnicoat snatched second for the sister #56 Team Project 1 Porsche in the final moments, muscling past Michelle Gatting. It was a close finish in the end, the top three within 20 seconds of each other.
That’s another FIA WEC season in the books. The championship, sporting a new-look in 2023 with no GTE Pro class and what is set to be a bumper Hypecar class with multiple new factory teams, gets back underway with the 2023 season opener at Sebring next March.
