Audi concludes its WEC program with a double

Audi ends its program by signing a double at the 6 Hours of Bahrain while its last victory dates back to Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) last May. The R18 n°8 of Di Grassi-Duval-Jarvis, who started from pole, won in front of the No. 7 sister car of Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer, after the LMP1s at Les Anneaux dominated the event on the Sakhir circuit.

The race was more complicated for Porsche, but the crew of the 919 Hybrid n°2 composed of Dumas-Lieb-Jani nevertheless secured the Drivers' title with a 6th place. The Championship leaders nevertheless had a big scare when they suffered a puncture and a blocked wheel at the start of the second hour following contact from Christian Ried on the KCMG 911 RSR. The Porsche of the new champions has not won a podium since the 24 Hours of Le Mans where she won.

The Stuttgart manufacturer also secured a podium finish for the final event in the career of Mark Webber, teammate of Brenadon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, who completed the final stint in the No. 919 1 Hybrid.

The top five is completed by Toyota who were further behind in Bahrain. The TS050 Hybrid n°5 Buemi-Davidson-Nakajima finished ahead of Sarrazin's #6 sister car-Conway-Kobayashi who needed an achievement to maintain his title chances. The No. 6 crew lost 2nd place in the Championship to the winners of the last event.

G-Drive Racing scores another victory in LMP2 with Rast-Rusinov-Brundle. The No. 05 Oreca 26 was condemned to a comeback race after being disqualified due to non-compliant brake calipers. The Anglo-Russian team won ahead of the Ligier JS P2 of the RGR Sport by Morand of Gonzalez-Senna-Albuquerque and theAlpine A460 n°36 of Stone-Richelmi-Menezes.

The top five in the category was completed by the two Extreme Speed ​​Motorsports Ligier JS P2s, with the #31 of Dalziel-Derani-Cumming preceding the #30 of Dillmann-Van der Garde-Gelael. The American team's first LMP2 raced at the front before falling at the end of the race with amateur driver Chris Cumming taking over.

Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, the drivers of theAston Martin n°95, secured the GTE Pro Drivers and Teams trophies by winning the category ahead of the Ferrari of AF Corse, the No. 51 of Bruni-Calado preceding the No. 71 of Bird-Rigon, which ensures the Manufacturers' Cup for the Prancing Horse. Turner-Adam's second Vantage in class completed the top five behind the #67 Ford GT of Tincknell-Priaulx after seeing its chances of success slip away after losing a wheel.

The crew of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari made up of Perrodo-Aguas-Collard unsurprisingly secured the trophy in GTE Am by arriving in 3rd place in the category. The 911 RSR achieved a double with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing of Long-Heinemeier Hansson-Al Qubaisi victorious ahead of the No. 78 KCMG of Ried-Henzler-Camathias. The Larbre Competition Corvette of Ragues-Brandela-Taylor was aiming for victory before being stopped for several minutes following a mechanical problem.

The season of WEC is not yet completely finished since the rookie tests will be contested this Sunday, November 20 in Bahrain.

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Bahrain carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2090 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.