The 2013 FIAWEC season came to an end this weekend with Toyota Motorsports ending Audi’s winning streak in the LMP1 category, this was at the Bahrain International Circuit during the final round- 6 Hours of Bahrain. Audi had already won the championship in the previous round but this did not stop Toyota from fighting the last battle, they gave it all they had, right from winning in the qualifying session to the main race. This resilience began showing back at the 6 Hours of Fuji but Audi was able to cut off Toyota’s bid for a win.
It was the No.8 TS030 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin that crossed the line first, 1m10s ahead of the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässle.Both Audi and Toyota saw each their veteran cars settle into retirement after suffering engine problems. For Toyota, it was the No.7 TS030 Hybrid of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima while Audi saw the No.1 car of World Drivers’ Champions, Loïc Duval, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish retire due to drivetrain problems.
Meanwhile, the highly competed GT class, Ferrari was able to push off Aston Martin who were looking forward to winning the GT and Amatuer classes. Ferrari finished first and third in this class, the number one was the No.51 Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander which was able to dominate the race after the first 40 laps. Second in GT class was the No.91 Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet, followed by another Ferrari, the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari of Kamui Kobayashi and Giancarlo Fisichella.
In the LMP2 class, the G-Drive Racing’s No.26 ORECA 03 Nissan took the win bringing its total wins to four this season. Aston Martin may have missed out on the GT class win but they ensured that the GTE-AM class win went to their side. This win went to the No.95 Vantage V8 of Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard. The FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Drivers’ title went Aston Martin with Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall, they finished fifth yesterday but that was good enough to secure them the title.
The No.81 8Star Motorsport Ferrari finished second in the LM GTE-AM class but they were lucky to scoop the LMGTE Am Teams’ title by 3 points over Aston Martin Racing’s No.96. The next time we see these cars racing will be April 20th, 2014 when the season kicks off at the Silverstone circuit in the UK.