The Sahir Desert hosted the first of the final two Bahrain FIA WEC races. Throughout the weekend, Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated in Bahrain, whose “hypercars” occupied the first row of the starting grid. Nevertheless, already in the first corner there was a change of positions between the teammates: Mike Conway passed Sebastien Buemi inside the first corner and led the race.
After the first pit stop, at which the Toyota crews were divided in tactics – No. 7 made a shorter stop and did not change pilots – Conway gained a foothold in the first position and created a small gap. In the end, it was enough to keep the sister crew behind – Kobayashi crossed the finish line 50 seconds ahead of Nakajima.
Alpine Elf Matmut could not offer any resistance to Japanese cars, finished third and lost the chance to catch up with Toyota in the standings of Hypercar automakers. The Japanese brand thus won the third consecutive and fourth FIA WEC championship title in its history. However, before the final race of the 2021 season, one intrigue remains in Hypercar: the third victory in a row allowed Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez to break away from Buemi, Nakajima and Brandon Hartley by 15 points in the drivers’ standings.
The race in the LMP2 class ended with an equally convincing victory: the crew of Team WRT No. 31 already took the lead in the first hour of the marathon and then only increased the advantage until the finish. The closest rivals from the JOTA team lost more than a minute in the end, and Robin Fryins, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi celebrated their second victory in a row – earlier, after a dramatic rally of teammates on the last lap, they won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This success brought Team WRT No. 41 to the leaders of the LMP2 Trophy. However, the closest rivals – JOTA No. 28 – concede only five points. The fate of the championship in LMP2 and other categories will be decided during the final stage of the 2021 season – the 8 Hours of Bahrain race.
