Swiss teams: victories and points at the WEC finale
HUT AB Sébastien Buemi is WEC World Champion for the fourth time with Toyota. Louis Delétraz also took the title in LMP2. There was also a sensational victory for Rahel Frey in the GTE.
Former Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi would have put it in a nutshell with his standard saying "Joy reigns! What the Swiss achieved at the finale of the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain deserves respect.
Sébastien Buemi's fourth world championship title was never in danger. Buemi started from pole position, won the start and handed over the Toyota with the #8 in the lead. His two team-mates Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa did the rest. After eight hours and 249 laps respectively, the Vaud native was crowned the 2023 world champion.
Consistency brought success
Sébastien Buemi: "It's a great feeling to win the world championship again and I'm really grateful to the team. I think we deserved it this year. Of course it was difficult not to win Le Mans, but we proved our strength and won the championship in front of such strong competition. It's always special to win, but this title was won with consistency. Even though we weren't always the fastest car, we scored points everywhere, even in the difficult races."
Endurance Trophy for Louis Delétraz
However, Buemi was not the only Swiss driver to celebrate in Bahrain. His French-Swiss colleague Louis Delétraz (right gallery, left in picture) also popped the corks in the LMP2. Like Buemi, Delétraz celebrated another class victory and secured the Endurance Trophy. It was the last regular race in the LMP2 class as part of the World Endurance Championship. In future, the class will only compete in Le Mans within the WEC.
Rahel Frey won with Iron Dames
And that's not all the Swiss success stories! Although it wasn't quite enough for Rahel Frey (center gallery, in the middle) to win the LMGTE title (it was already clinched before the final), the LMGTE era ended with a premiere: the Iron Dames with Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy celebrated their first ever WEC victory in the final race. The Iron Lynx Porsche with the #85 prevailed in a thrilling duel against the Aston Martin #777. Frey thus successfully defended second place in the overall standings.
Nico Müller in eighth place
The WEC season finale ended as follows for the other Swiss drivers: Nico Müller (gallery left) finished eighth in his comeback with Peugeot, Neel Jani finished 10th in the Proton Porsche, while Le Mans class winner Fabio Scherer ended the season with a sixth place, which put him second overall (behind Delétraz) in the final standings. Thomas Flohr narrowly missed out on the podium in Bahrain in the AF Corse Ferrari. However, he also made it onto the podium in the championship with third place.
Photos: Toyota, WRT, Iron Dames, Peugeot
Source: Car Sport Switzerland
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