Perfect WEC farewell: Audi rules in Bahrain

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After 18 years in prototype endurance racing, Audi had the perfect send-off at the 6 Hours of Bahrain, finishing 1-2 in their final WEC race before leaving to focus their efforts on Formula E. Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval won the German marque’s farewell race along with Oliver Jarvis as the trio clinched 2nd in the drivers’ championship at the season finale.

It really was a perfect weekend for the #8 Audi crew of ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport‘s Lucas di Grassi, Dragon Racing‘s Loïc Duval and British driver Oliver Jarvis. They took pole position around the desert circuit, and after an impressive race they were able to take an emotional victory for the Ingolstadt-based marque. Second place went to their sister car driven by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer; while the podium played host to another farewell as Mark Webber finished 3rd in his final race, the former F1 driver having announced he was retiring from racing following this WEC campaign. He shared the #1 Porsche for the final time with Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard.

The Drivers’ Championship went to the other Porsche trio of Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas; meaning that the faint title chances of #6 Toyota trio Venturi‘s Stéphane Sarrazin, his former Formula E team-mate Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi faded away under the desert lights. What’s more, they could only finish in P5 in Bahrain, meaning the di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis trio overtook them to finish 2nd in the championship by a mere 2.5 points. The sister Toyota, the #5 car driven by Renault e.dams‘ Sébastien Buemi along with Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson, finished 4th in the race but after a disastrous season could only take 8th in the final standings.

Britain’s Sam Bird of DS Virgin Racing and Italy’s Davide Rigon qualified P5 on the GTE Pro class grid in Bahrain. They rose two places during the six hours to finish 3rd by the end of the race, netting the talented duo 2nd in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, behind Danish duo Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim of Aston Martin Racing.

Three former Formula E racers were in action in the LMP2 class, with two finishing on the podium. One-time Team Aguri racer René Rast returned to the #26 G-Drive Racing car after two races away, and alongside Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov took the class win and 9th overall – from 31st and last on the grid! Just 6.840 behind, second in class, was the #43 RGR Sport by Morand machine with former Mahindra Racing fan favourite Bruno Senna on board alongside Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo González. Also competing in the LMP2 class was Panasonic Jaguar Racing reserve driver, and former Team China Racing (now NextEV NIO) racer Ho-Pin Tung, who finished 6th in class in the #35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine alongside David Cheng and Paul-Loup Chatin.

Finally, Panasonic Jaguar Racing driver Adam Carroll finished 4th in the GTE Am class out of six entries in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR he pilots alongside fellow Brits Michael Wainwright and Ben Barker.

Laurence Thorn | e-racing.net

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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