Toyota secured a 1-2 finish in FIA WEC finale in 8 Hours of Bahrain in Hypercar, but Ferrari took both the titles, as #92 Manthey did so in LMGT3.
Hypercar –
Toyota might be FIA WEC’s most successful manufacturer by some margin, but the 2025 season has been a tough one for the brand, and heading to Bahrain International Circuit, neither of its crews had set foot on any step of the podium this year, let alone the highest one. This evening, they occupied the top two spots. Having locked out the front row of the grid during qualifying 24 hours earlier, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s pair of GR010 Hybrid Hypercars dominated proceedings in the desert over the course of a compelling eight-hour contest that started in daylight and ended after dark.
The pole-sitting #7 Hypercar piloted by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries led the majority of the race, ultimately taking the chequered flag a shade under 20 seconds ahead of the sister #8 car shared by Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa. New Zealand’s Hartley – four times a world champion in FIA WEC’s top-tier – took charge early on courtesy of an audacious tyre strategy. A drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags during Buemi’s stint behind the wheel subsequently dropped the #8 entry down the order, but the fortuitous timing of a late safety car intervention threw the trio a lifeline, which they grasped with both hands to complete a Toyota one-two and extend the marque’s phenomenal Bahrain record.
If TGR was happy, then Ferrari was overjoyed, as the Prancing Horse successfully clinched both the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ Hypercar crowns at the end of a season in which the Ferrari 499P has largely been a cut above its prototype rivals. A fourth-place finish – sandwiched between the #50 and #83 Ferraris – proved more than enough for the #51 crew of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi to secure the Drivers’ spoils. AF Corse’s Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye sealed the runner-up spot in the title table, with Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina placing third overall in the second of the factory cars.
The #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R (Alex Lynn / Norman Nato / Will Stevens) wound up sixth ahead of Aston Martin THOR Team’s #009 Valkyrie (Marco Sørensen / Alex Riberas / Roman De Angelis) in seventh – on a day that had at one stage promised much more for the famous British manufacturer, whose new-for-2025 Hypercar deservedly led a world championship race for the very first time in the hands of the Spaniard.
Ferrari –
In its third campaign in FIA WEC’s top-tier, the legendary Italian marque has been the benchmark all year in the Hypercar class, winning the opening four races with its 499P prototype to establish an advantage that none of its rivals was ultimately able to overcome. The result represents the Prancing Horse’s first global endurance racing success since lifting the laurels in the World Sportscar Championship more than half-a-century ago in 1972, ending up a commanding 75 points ahead of closest competitor Toyota in the Manufacturers’ classification.
To complete Ferrari’s joy, its three crews locked out the top three positions in the Drivers’ standings. Courtesy of a fourth-place finish in Bahrain, Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi clinched the crown behind the wheel of the #51 Ferrari AF Corse entry, having led the way since triumphing on home turf at Imola back in April. The runner-up spoils went the way of 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye in the privately-run #83 AF Corse 499P, with the #50 Ferrari AF Corse crew (Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina) taking third.
LMGT3 –
The Akkodis ASP Lexus team secured its second win of the 2025 season at the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, but only after a tense finale in which the French entered teams’ victory appeared to be under serious threat in the final stages. The #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu just held off the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG LMGT3 of Maxime Martin, Lin Hodenius and Martin Berry by just 0.7s.
While the Akkodis ASP team added Bahrain to its maiden 6 Hours of Sao Paulo win in July, a fourth place confirmed the Manthey 1stPhorm squad of Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera as both 2025 LMGT3 drivers and teams’ champions. The title success ensured that the German team clinched back-to-back LMGT3 title victories, which saw solid foundations built via a pair of wins at Imola and Le Mans, in addition to five otgher points scoring performances.
But it was the # 87 Lexus that was in command for the majority of the race, with Lopez enjoying a lead of approximately 13 seconds before a final Safety Car closed up the field. Pera had been running in second place before he handed over to now two time WEC champion Lietz for the final tense stint, as the Austrian driver was forced to relinquish positions to both the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi and Maxime Martin in the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, slightly after the 8 hour race went back to green flag running.
Drudi, who shares the No. 27 Aston Martin with Zacharie Robichon and Ian James, pushed through to launch a challenge on Lopez for the lead, but he was unable to make the move stick and was actually usurped by Martin. Second place for the #61 witnessed the best finish of a challenging campaign for the Iron Lynx team.
That fourth position though was enough for the Manthey 1stPhorm trio of Lietz, Hardwick and Pera to clinch the championship with a 14 point buffer ahead of the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari drivers Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau, who came home in fifth position. As ever in LMGT3 the battles raged throughout the day in to nighttime encounter. One of the most entertaining was #33 TF Sport Corvette driver Daniel Juncadella’s with Augusto Farfus’ #31 The Bend WRT BMW.
The two traded several touches but it was the Spanish ace who won out as he took sixth position in the car he shares with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar. While Akkodis ASP celebrated on one hand, it commiserated on the other as the polesitting No. 78 car driven by Finn Gehrsitz, Ben Barnicoat and Arnold Robin was forced into the garage in the second hour with a technical problem.
But there was solace for the Jerome Policand fronted team as the win for the #87 promoted them in to third position in both the teams and drivers’ final standings. Thomas Flohr emerged unscathed from a substantial accident in the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari after he was clipped by the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Hypercar when Jenson Button, in his final professional event, misjudged an overtaking manoeuvre. The #38 car was penalised for the incident, which triggered the first of two safety cars in the season finale.
Result: https://www.fiawec.com/en/page/resultats-1/56
https://www.fiawec.com/en/page/resultats-1/56
[The story is as per press release]