WEC: Toyota wins in Bahrain to take manufacturers’ crown; Lotterer, Vanthoor, Estre claim Drivers title

Toyota secured the FIA World Endurance Championship manufacturer’s title with a victory at the season-concluding 8 Hours of Bahrain, while André Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor, and Kévin Estre clinched the drivers’ crown despite finishing outside the top ten

The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing trio of Sébastien Buemi, Ryō Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley took a brilliant win in an action-packed 8 Hours of Bahrain, with the race disrupted by two Safety Car periods that set up dramatic shootouts in both WEC classes.

Buemi was spun out of the lead by a GT car in the first hour, delivered an outstanding drive to chase down the #5 Porsche Penske 963 and regained the lead in the final hour. This result earned Toyota its fourth consecutive FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship title and sixth FIA WEC top-class manufacturers title, including the two manufacturers’ titles won in the LMP1 era.

The #6 Porsche Penske crew of Lotterer, Vanthoor, and Estre secured the drivers’ title despite finishing 10th after two penalties in the final hour. Their title was unaffected by these setbacks, as their closest rivals, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse, managed only 11th place, and the #7 Toyota driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nyck de Vries retired mid-race.

Title winners Lotterer, Vanthoor, and Estre were the only team to achieve two wins this season, in Qatar and Fuji, with Lotterer celebrating his second FIA WEC title in what was his final race as a Porsche factory driver.

The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado claimed second place. However, a post-race penalty of 4min 55sec, for exceeding maximum permitted tyre allocation, demoted the trio to 14th place.

This elevated the #5 Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, and Frédéric Makowiecki to second in the final results, and the #93 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies of Mikkel Jensen, Nico Müller and Jean-Éric Vergne to third, granting the French manufacturer its first and only podium finish of 2024.

In LMGT3, the #55 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari claimed its first win of the season. Alessio Rovera executed a thrilling move to take the lead after a tense fight against the #81 TF Sport Corvette and Iron Dames Lamborghini. Rovera held off a late charge from Eastwood in the #81 Corvette (shared by Eastwood with Rui Andrade, Tom van Rompuy), securing the victory for himself and teammates François Hériau and Simon Mann.

TF Sport achieved its best weekend of the season as its second car, the #82 Corvette driven by Daniel Juncadella, Hiroshi Koizumi, and Sébastien Baud, took third place after recovering from an early penalty for contact with the race-winning #8 Toyota. The remainder of the top six included the Iron Lynx Lamborghini in fourth, the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche in fifth, and the #59 United Autosports McLaren in sixth.