Podium WEC Bahrain 6hrs 2013
BIC, Sakhir – The no 8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Stephane Sarrazin roared across the finish line at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) to capture the first place at the grand finale of the 2013 World Endurance Championship – the Six Hours of Bahrain.
The hard-fought end-of-season victory came after the Toyota tandem put up a total of 199 laps in a total time of 6 hours, 1 minute and 15.303 seconds.
Audi’s Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler managed a second place finish. The other LMP1 teams – Toyota’s Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima, Audi’s Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Allan McNish, as well as Rebellion Racing’s Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Nicolas Prost all did not classify.
G-Drive Racing clinched the first place on the LMP2 podium after a commendable performance by Roman Rusinov, John Martin and Mike Conway. The trio drove their Oreca 03 Nissan for a total of 184 laps in 6 hours, 1 minute and 15.738 seconds. They were ahead of OAK Racing’s Olivier Pla, David Heinemeier Hansson and Alex Brundle and Bjorn Wirdheim, Wolfgang Reip and Jon Lancaster of Greaves Motorsport.
AF Corse’s Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander excelled in the LMGTE Pro class, recording 175 laps in a total of 6 hours 2 minutes and 30.722 seconds. The Porsche team of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet, meanwhile, managed a second place finish, ahead of the second AF Corse partnership – Kamui Kobayashi and former F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella.
In the LMGTE Am class, Aston Martin’s Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim had 173 laps, in a total time of 6 hours, 2 minutes and 43.316 seconds. 8 Star Motorsports Vicente Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Davide Rigon were second, while AF Corse’s Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, and Matt Griffin managed the third spot on the podium.
Toyota Quotes –
TS030 HYBRID #7 (Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre, Kazuki Nakajima)
Race: DNF, 64 laps, 2 pit stops. Fastest lap: 1min 44.440secs
Alex Wurz: “Obviously it is disappointing to end the season like that. During my stint I looked after my tyres well and it was a nice fight for the lead; I was catching Stéphane. Everything felt good but then I heard a noise, smelt oil and then had no drive. I pulled to the side of the track and it was game over. I am sorry for the team because we did a good job this weekend.”
Nicolas Lapierre: “I am very disappointed because it was looking good. I had a good start and then together with Sébastien we could pull away. I had a little incident in traffic and lost the lead. But I was just behind Sébastien and the two cars were very strong. Then I gave the wheel to Alex and unfortunately we had this problem. It is not the way we wanted to finish this season but we showed the car was very competitive which is encouraging for next year.”
Kazuki Nakajima: “We were doing a really good race and in a close fight with our sister car. Unfortunately we had an engine problem and this put us out. It is a pity I could not drive the car but that’s racing. I think this year we have had a fair bit of bad luck; I hope we are saving some luck for next year.”
TS030 HYBRID #8 (Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Stéphane Sarrazin)
Race: 1st, 199 laps, 7 pit stops. Fastest lap: 1min 44.323secs
Anthony Davidson: “It was fantastic to end up on the top step of the podium. I am so happy for the team to get our first proper victory of the year. Obviously the #7 won in Fuji but the conditions were unusual that day with the rain. Today’s result is completely justified after what happened in Shanghai when we were leading comfortably but had to retire due to a technical problem. We had the speed all weekend here and it’s great to finally win my first race for TOYOTA Racing.”
Sébastien Buemi: “I’ve had to wait to win my first endurance race so I am really delighted with today’s victory. It is a reward for the whole team after a hard season. I am so happy with the result; now we can all go home and enjoy the winter a bit then focus on next year. To finish the season with a win was really important to show the car was competitive. We are still quite new to endurance and I think we can be proud of this win and work hard next year to achieve more.”
Stéphane Sarrazin: “It was an amazing race for us. I have been waiting a long time to win a race with Sébastien and Anthony. We had a great weekend, without mistakes. We were fast all weekend and in the race our set-up was very good. We could control the race and I felt happy in the car; I felt we would win it. I am delighted because we did our best since the beginning of the season. It is like a dream; the team did a brilliant job and I’m so pleased to be part of it.”
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “This victory has a special meaning for us because this it is the last race of the season and we won. Our win was not down to luck; our performance was better than our competitors so from this point of view I am very happy. Also we could show our real performance to the wider world; something that hasn’t necessarily been reflected in the results in the last few races. I would like to thank all the team for their never-ending hard work throughout the season; it was a tough year but we have finished in a fantastic way.”
