Sebastien Buemi (SUI) / Brendon Hartley (NZL) / Ryo Hirakawa (JPN) #08 Toyota Gazoo Racing, Toyota GR010, Hybrid. 03.11.2023. FIA World Endurance Championship, Round 7, Eight Hours of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday. – www.xpbimages.com, EMail: [email protected] © Copyright: Moy/XPB Images
Sebastien Buemi leads an hour in at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s season finale, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, after chaos at the start saw his teammate Mike Conway drop down below the LMP2s.
Buemi, in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, started on pole with Conway beside him in the sister #7 Toyota. However, Earl Bamber, in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, locked up under pressure from #50 Ferrari 499P’s Miguel Molina, with the Kiwi unable to stop his car or turn in for the first corner.
This saw Bamber go into Conway’s Toyota, turning the white, red and black car around. The cars behind had to take avoiding action, with the two Ferraris of Molina and teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi in the other #51 Ferrari take P2 and P3. They later swapped positions as Molina was on a different strategy, saving tyres.
Buemi is currently 18s ahead of Pier Guidi. Conway has recovered to third, after overtaking Will Stevens, fourth in the #38 JOTA Porsche 963. Stevens had just overtaken Molina at turn 1, enabling Conway to overtake the Spaniard towards turn 4, putting Molina down in fifth.
In LMP2, Gabriel Aubry leads, behind the wheel of the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07-Gibson, after polesitter Tom Blomqvist got punted by the #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 at the start, dropping the Brit down the field. Aubry is over 26 seconds ahead of Filip Urgan in the #9 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson. Third is Sean Galeal in the #31 WRT Oreca 07-Gibson.
Polesitter Sarah Bovy is in control of the GTE-Am class, at the wheel of the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19, although she did lose the lead to her teammate Matteo Cressoni for a little while. WEC debutant Liam Talbot is second in the #777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage AMR, 13 seconds back, while Ahmad Al Harthy is third in the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin.
Keyword: Buemi leads at Bahrain an hour in after chaos at start