Toyota Gazoo Racing celebrated its fifth win of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship season at the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain today, as the No.8 Toyota TS 050 HYBRID triumphed at an eventful season finale.

Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima claimed a third consecutive WEC win to ensure that the Japanese manufacturer won five races in a WEC season since they entered in 2012.

Buemi took the lead from Neel Jani’s pole sitting Porsche 919 Hybrid in the first hour after fighting through from fourth on the grid in the early exchanges. Nakajima and Davidson were both able to extend the lead and the car eventually took the chequered flag by a full lap.

Davidson in particular had an eventful race, as he raced through the pain barrier after breaking a toe in his left foot in a bizarre pit accident.

Porsche LMP Team claimed second and third in their farewell race as the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber claimed second position ahead of the No.1 sister car driven by Neel Jani, André Lotterer and Nick Tandy.

Both cars fought back from delays, the No.2 car from an unscheduled pit stop in the first hour after Bernhard inadvertently ran over a marker bollard. Tandy collided with the Gulf Racing Porsche in the fourth hour suffering a puncture and the car then subsequently received a drive-through penalty.

It was Bernhard and Lotterer who crossed the line in the duo of Porsche 919 Hybrid’s for the very last time for the triple FIA WEC and Le Mans winning design.

The No.2 Toyota Gazoo racing TS 050 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José Maria Lopez was in contention during the first phase of the race but lost two laps after suffering damage when in collision with the LMGTE Pro class leading No.92 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Michael Christensen.

All provisional classifications can be found HERE and results can be found HERE

Senna and Canal take LMP2 crown in dramatic finale

Vaillante Rebellion celebrated a memorable first LMP2 championship success after a tense and thrilling finale at the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain on Saturday evening.  Bruno Senna and Julien Canal claimed the crown after they sealed a fourth win of the season and a third in succession along with their teammate Nicolas Prost.

Senna and Canal lifted the championship trophy and, although Prost will not be crowned champion due to missing the Nurburgring race in July, his teammates and team praised his massive contribution to the success.

The No.31 Vaillante Rebellion ORECA-Gibson was engaged in a fascinating race long duel with the No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car crewed by Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung.

The race between the two title protagonists swung several ways throughout the six hour race but ultimately came down to a final thrilling hour when Bruno Senna had to adapt to a temporary loss of power steering.

As well as a five second time penalty received for contact with Jean-Eric Vegne’s  CEFC Manor TRS car earlier in the race, the Vaillante Rebellion team were forced to work extra hard for what will be remembered as a famous championship success. The Swiss entered team also took the 2017 LMP2 FIA World Endurance Teams Trophy to complete an ultra-successful season.

Canal became a double LMP2 champion in Bahrain today emulating his success with the G-Drive Racing team two season ago.

Despite Oliver Jarvis’ blistering final stint charge, the Jackie Chan DC Racing squad just missed out on the title and crossed the line just shy of Senna’s car.  After 72 Hours of racing throughout the 2017 season the margin between the two battling LMP2 cars was just 10.6 seconds!  Although there was some understandable disappointment in missing out on the championship, the Chinese team can be justifiably proud of their debut WEC season, in which they took a 1-2 LMP2 success at Le Mans.

Completing the podium in Bahrain was the No.13 Vaillante Rebellion crew of Nelson Piquet Jr, Mathias Beche and David Heinemeier-Hansson who took a third podium finish of the campaign.

All provisional classifications can be found HERE and results can be found HERE

That’s it for the 2017 season and we thank all our competitors for a great season.  See you all in 2018 ready for the 2018/2019 Super Season!