TOYOTA GAZOO Racing made endurance racing history as the first World Champions of the Hypercar era with a one-two victory in the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López won the penultimate round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in their #7 GR010 HYBRID. Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley completed a perfect result for the team, bringing the #8 car home in second place.
“Car #7 was a little bit quicker than us and they deserved to win,” commented Hartley. “We had some tyre degradation issues and I had one or two things happening with the car, but we will learn from this. Well done to car #7.
“We are still in the fight for the drivers’ World Championship but car #7 has made it hard for us in the last race. It’s an awesome achievement from the team to win the Hypercar World Championship in the first year so big congratulations to everyone. I know how much hard work has gone into this and everyone in the team deserves this title.”
In very hot and challenging conditions, mechanics, engineers and drivers worked intensively to earn TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s fourth World Championship in WEC, and its third in succession. The victory also maintained the GR010 HYBRID Hypercar’s 100% winning record in 2021, with one race remaining.
Focus now switched to the drivers’ title fight in next weekend’s final race. The Le Mans-winning #7 crew moved a significant step closer to retaining the World Championship they won in Bahrain 12 months ago. Their third win of the season extends their advantage over the #8 drivers to 15 points.
The contest between the two GR010 HYBRID crews was intense throughout the event and, when the race got under way, Sébastien in the #8 held the advantage from pole position. But Mike pursued him throughout the first stint and the pair were separated by less than a second for the opening 45 minutes.
The cars were closely matched and the lead changed hands several times in the early stages as the momentum swung. Eventually the #7 established itself at the front, suffering slightly less from tyre degradation on a day when all Hypercars faced the same issue.
At half distance, José led by just 10 seconds from Sébastien but the battle took a decisive turn after four hours when the #8 was delayed during a tyre change and dropped to third. Although Brendon swiftly overtook the Alpine to reclaim second, he trailed Kamui by around 40 seconds.
The GR010 HYBRIDs maintained their pace at the front and Kamui was at the wheel of the victorious #7 car when it crossed the line after 185 laps. Kazuki following 51.401secs later to complete the one-two.
The end of this six-hour contest marks the halfway point in WEC’s Bahrain double-header. The teams will immediately begin preparations for an eight-hour race on Saturday 6 November which brings the curtain down on the 2021 WEC season and decide the outcome of the drivers’ World Championship.
6 Hours of Bahrain results:
1st #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 185 laps
2nd #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +51.401secs
3rd #36 Alpine (Negrao/Lapierre/Vaxivierre) +1 lap
4th #31 Team WRT (Frijns/Habsburg/Milesi) +5 laps
5th #28 JOTA (Galael/Vandoorne/Blomqvist) +5 laps
6th #38 JOTA (Gonzalez/Da Costa/Davidson) +5 laps
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