WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain

FIA World Endurance Championship

The WEC has established itself as one of the premier championships under the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the leading global series for endurance racing. It attracts countless stars in motorsport, and it continues to grow in popularity every year, with races taking place in eight countries across four continents.

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Toyota Gazoo Racing on pole for Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

Toyota Gazoo Racing on pole for Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

  • #8 crew of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa lead Toyota one-two on starting grid
  • United Autosports’ #23 car in front at start for LMP2 class, Iron Dames secure pole in LMGTE Am category
  • WEC’s season-ending eight-hour endurance spectacle scheduled to flag off at 2pm on Saturday
  • Dutchman Robert De Haan wins opening race of 2023/2024 Porsche Carrera Cup ME season

Toyota Gazoo Racing powered to pole position today evening for this year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Brendon Hartley, in the cockpit of Toyota’s #8 GR010 Hybrid, steered his crew to the leading grid place with a sensational qualifying run held under the bright lights at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

Hartley will be sharing driving duties with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa in Saturday’s eight-hour main event, which marks the final round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Along with their overall pole, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #8 contender is also at the front in the WEC’s Hypercar category.

Tom Blomqvist put the #23 United Autosports crew in pole in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, and Sarah Bovy secured the leading grid position for #85 Iron Dames team in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE Am) category.

Saturday’s highly anticipated WEC curtain-closer is scheduled to flag off at 2pm. It will be the 12th time the WEC will be racing in Sakhir, and the fifth time the event is taking place in its current eight-hour format.

In this evening’s qualifying, held in cool and dry conditions, Hartley clocked a best lap time of one minute 46.564 seconds to top the timesheet. He set the only time of the session that dipped under 1:47.000.

The Hartley-Buemi-Hirakawa triumvirate will be joined on the front row by Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.

Kobayashi qualified second-fastest today, going 0.489s behind Hartley in their #7 GR010 Hybrid. Alex Lynn secured third on the grid for Cadillac Racing, setting a best lap 0.701s off the leading pace in his #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which he shares with Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook.

All 12 Hypercars will start at the head of the stacked 36-car field in the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Joining Cadillac in row two is Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #6 crew in their Porsche 963 Hybrid. The pair of Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps will begin the race in fifth and sixth, while Porsche Penske’s #5 crew are seventh, with Proton Competition’s #99 Porsche 963 in eighth. The Hypercar grid is completed by the #38 Hertz Team JOTA in ninth, the two Peugeot TotalEnergies cars in 10th and 11th and the #4 challenger of Floyd Vanwall Racing Team.

In the LMP2 class, Blomqvist claimed pole for United Autosports with a best lap of 1:52.290. He had the qualifying duties in the team’s Oreca 07-Gibson, which he shares with Joshua Pierson and Oliver Jarvis.

Charles Milesi in Alpine Elf Team’s #36 car qualified in second 0.271s off Blomqvist’s pace, while Robin Frijns put Team WRT third in class with a best lap 0.608s behind in their #31 Oreca 07-Gibson.

In the LMGTE Am category, Bovy spearheaded the Iron Dames crew to the front in their #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a best lap of 1:58.69s. Set to compete alongside her are teammates Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey.

They are the only all-female team on the grid. They will begin Saturday’s main event ahead, in class, of the #777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR of D’Station Racing and the #25 Vantage AMR of ORT by TF. Liam Talbot qualified 0.290s behind Bovy for D’Station, while Ahmed Al Harthy was 0.469s back for ORT by TF.

De Haan wins opening race of Porsche Carrera Cup ME season

Robert De Haan of the Netherlands triumphed this evening in the season-opening race of the 2023/2024 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East (PCCME), held in support of this weekend’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

The Central Europe Racing team driver won from pole following a tough battle with German Theo Oeverhaus of DHL Team. Only 1.028 seconds separated the pair at the chequered flag after 12 laps of exciting action along BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track.

Colin Boenighausen, also from Germany, came third for FIRE Racing 3.499s behind to complete the overall podium.

All three drivers were also the top-placers in the PCCME’s Pro class.

De Haan’s victory continued his near-perfect weekend at BIC, in which he also topped the timesheets in the meeting’s two practices while capturing pole for race one in qualifying. He is set to start Saturday’s second race on the front row in second position.

Taking the honours in the ProAm category this evening was Canadian Bashar Mardini of Team BMR, who finished sixth overall; while winning the Am class was Italian Sebastian Gorga of R1SE Motorsport, who was 10th overall in the 16-car field.

Team Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa and Shaikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa of One% team joined Gorga on the Am category podium.

The PCCME’s second race of this round is set to take place Saturday, scheduled for an 11am start with Oeverhaus on pole.

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