FIA WEC Season 2021: 6 Hours of Bahrain LMP Race

WEC

Oct 30

Written By Car Racing Reporter

Hypercar: Toyota #7 team increases championship advance by 7 points thanks to overall win.

📷 6 Hours of Bahrein 2021 FIAWEC live tv.

Pole sitter S. Buemi driving #7 Toyota took the lead of the race until 46’ after the start, when he was instructed by the team to let pass Mike Conway driving sister car #7 as he was faster. From then on, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway took definitively the lead until the end of the race.

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With 2 hours to go, both Toyota pitted. Kobayashi replaced Lopez in Toyota #7 leading the race. Hartley replaced Buemi in Toyota #8 but mechanics lost time with a front left tire change issue which enabled Matthieu Vaxivière with Alpine #36 to take P2. A couple of laps later, Brendon Hartley took P2 back.

20’ later Matthieu Vaxivière pitted and Nicolas Lapierre went back on track with a 1’37” gap behind the second Toyota (#8). Hartley was 42” behind Kobayashi driving sister car #7.

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📷 6 Hours of Bahrein 2021 FIAWEC live tv.

Entering the final hour, Nakajima took over from Hartley in Toyota #8 in the last pit stop. Alpine #36 was 1’34” behind.

The two Japanese drivers ended the race in that order with a 51.401” gap. Nicolas Lapierre ended 3rd, one lap behind the Toyota’s.

📷 6 Hours of Bahrein 2021 FIAWEC live tv.

Thanks to this win, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway (#7 Toyota) increased their lead to 7 points with 145 points to 130 Points for Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi in #8 car.

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Toyota Gazoo Racing is now Manufacturers Champion for the 3rd time in a row.

LMP2: WRT Team wins and takes championship lead

Guido Van de Garde (#29 Racing Team Nederland) takes the lead of LMP2 class, followed by #70 Realteam Racing) Loic Duval P2. Even though they started from P1 and P3 in the class, the 2 JOTA found themselves in P5 and P6, definitively in a strategy to save tires.

From then on, the LMP2 race was very interesting to watch, with many overtakes.

After 2 hours, Robin Frijns driving Team WRT was 4th overall and 1st of class, ahead of #22 United Autosports driven by Filipe Albuquerque. #29 Racing Team Nederland fought for P3 with # 34 Inter Europol Competition until the last one took over #29 at mid-race.

Also at mid-race, Montoya driving Dragonspeed #21 got passed by … his rear left tire! Triggering a new FCY. This would be the start of several pit stops for the team, who ended in the penultimate position losing lots of points to #29 for the championship.

📷 Photo Copyright 2021 Harry Parvin/AdrenalMedia.com

With 2 hours to go, #31 WRT Team driven by Charles Milesi was still leading with 28” United Autosports #22 driven by Fabio Scherer. Stoffel Vandoorne followed 9” behind with his #28 JOTA and #38 JOTA driven by Anthony Davidson followed 49” behind sister car.

With 15 minutes to go, #22 and #28 were fighting for P2 and Tom Blomqvist (#28) overtook Filipe Albuquerque (#22) with 15’ to go.

A few minutes later the battle for P3 was between the 2 Portuguese drivers with Da Costa (#38) overtaking Albuquerque (#22). With 10’ to go, both Jota and United Autosports cars pitted for a quick splash and go, and all 3 cars left the pit in the same order.

Thanks to their win, Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns take the lead of the LMP2 championship with 5 points advantage to #28 Jota team Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist.

Car Racing Reporter

Reporting endurance races from the 80th till now with 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1.000 km and 6 Hours races at Austin, Daytona, Imola, Le Mans, Monza, Nurburgring, Petit Le Mans, Portimao, Sebring, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, The Glen, …

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