6 a.m. Bahrain: Toyota dominates, Vaillante Rébellion champion in LM P2

Toyota despite having ceded the two crowns in LM P1 to Porsche, the Japanese firm still won one more round than the German ogre in the WEC. Indeed, on Saturday, the No. 8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima dominated the proceedings, completing the six-hour event with a lead of more than a lap over the No. 2 Porsche of champion drivers Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley. The number 1 of the Jani-Lotterer-Tandy crew completes the podium. The second Toyota for Lopez-Nakajima-Conway (4th) received a drive-through penalty for a collision with a Porsche 911 GTE.

The LM P2 category held many surprises, where two crews could still be titled: Canal-Senna in the No. 31 Vaillante Rébellion and Tung-Jarvis-Laurent in the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing. While the Oreca Gibson 07 from Ho-Pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis and the young Frenchman Thomas Laurent set off with a bang, the Vaillante Rebellion took the lead again in the final part of the effort. Unfortunately, a worrying problem with the power steering shook the Swiss team's stand!

After a “splash and dash” (a pit stop to add a little fuel) half an hour from the finish, the Chinese-flagged prototype was definitively out of the game. Julien Canal et Bruno senna shed a few tears as the checkered flag was lowered; the gap between the two cars was only ten seconds!

Another uncertainty, the identity of the Driver champions in the GTE Pro category. Thanks to a masterfully managed race, the AF Corse team, in charge of Ferrari 488 GTE, achieves the double. James Calado et Alessandro Pier Guidi are titled with the class victory, ahead of the Bird-Rigon duo. Frédéric Makowiecki, competing for the #91 Porsche, gave way in the final laps to the #67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx for the last step of the podium.

In the class reserved for amateurs, theAston Martin Official V8 Vantage leaves the circuits with one last world title for the trio Dalla Lana-Lauda-Lamy, winner of the round.

Discover the report of the last WEC event thanks to our special correspondent in Bahrain in issue 2141 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.