8H Bahrain: Toyota victory thanks to efficiency đ„
SUCCESS DUE TO HANDICAP The fourth endurance race of the year-long WEC SuperSeason in Bahrain ended with Toyota's third one-two - even though the regulations continue to severely restrict them. The highlights of the 8H Bahrain show how the preliminary decision was already made on the starting lap. The front row of the grid was shared by the two private LMP1 cars from Rebellion and Ginetta, behind them were [...]
The highlights of the 8H Bahrain show how the preliminary decision is already made on the starting lap.
The front row of the grid was shared by the two private LMP1 cars from Rebellion and Ginetta, behind them were the only two factory cars from Toyota Gazoo Racing, which are subject to a success handicap under WEC regulations.
Decisive starting round
However, after just one lap the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and JosĂ© MarĂa LĂłpez was leading. The Ginetta spun and took the Rebellion with it. SĂ©bastien Buemi as the starting driver in the #8 Toyota also took a knock. All of them were able to continue their drive with a loss of time, but they were unable to catch the Toyota that was leading from that moment on.
Double victory despite handicaps
With their second win of the season, the Toyota trio also took the lead in the drivers' world championship, as the longer distance meant more points than for a 4- or 6-hour race. Having traveled to the Emirate as world championship leaders, SĂ©bastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley had to live with a success handicap of 2.72 seconds per lap, almost two tenths more than their teammates. Nevertheless, they secured Toyota's third one-two in four races.
Slower than the fastest GT cars
The effect of the higher weight and lower power was shown by the top speed measurements on the 5.4-kilometer GP circuit: While the third-placed Rebellion driven by Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato, like the two Ginetta cars, reached a top speed of just under 300 km/h, the winning Toyota was almost 30 km/h behind.
The #8 car of the world champions was even slower than the three fastest GT cars from Aston Martin and Ferrari. Thanks to the efficiency of the hybrid factory cars and a perfect strategy, this disadvantage was made up in contrast to the previous race in China, where Rebellion was uncatchable.
In LMP2, the Swiss team Cool Racing brought its Oreca-Gibson with Nicolas Lapierre, Antonin Borga and Alexandre Coigny to the finish line in seventh position. Victory in LM-GTE-Pro went to the Aston Martin Vantage AMT of the Danes Sörensen/Thiim.
Overall classification 8 Hours of Bahrain
