Down to the wire: five WEC titles to be decided today

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Three of the World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) eight 2019/2020 season titles have already been decided.

Toyota Gazoo Racing has clinched the FIA World Endurance LMP1 Championship; United Autosports won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams, and Aston Martin have claimed the GT Manufacturers FIA World Endurance Championship.

Five other WEC crowns are still up for grabs. Here is how their title races have shaped up heading into today’s final round of the season.

FIA World Endurance LMP Drivers’ Championship

The two Toyota Gazoo Racing crews of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima (TS050 Hybrid #8), and teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose María Lopez (TS050 #7) are to fight it out face to face today for the FIA World Endurance LMP Drivers’ Championship.

Second in the classification since Fuji last year, victory at Le Mans allowed the Buemi-Hartley-Nakajima trio regain the lead by a slim seven points ahead of Conway-Kobayashi-Lopez.

Once again, cruelly denied the win at the 24-hour marathon, the #7 crew will be keen to end on a high a season which has already seen them climb to the top of the podium three times at Silverstone, in Bahrain last year and at Spa- Francorchamps.

Both line-ups have excellent sources of motivation in this race for the title: for the #7 crew, it will be a first world title in endurance racing. At the wheel of the #8, Buemi and Hartley could become the first triple FIA WEC World Champions, as Buemi won the title in 2014 and 2018-2019 with Toyota, while Hartley won in 2015 and 2017 with Porsche.
As for Nakajima, he would consolidate his unique place in Japan’s motorsport history after becoming his country’s first driver to win an FIA World Championship last year.

FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers

United Autosports has already won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams following an impressive streak of four consecutive victories. Their drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson—along with Paul di Resta, who missed one round putting him out of the title fight - have all but clinched the Drivers’ crown, and only extreme misfortune would remove this from their grasp, with Antonio Felix Da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez trailing behind by nearly 50 points for JOTA.

GT FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship

A triangular battle looms between the Aston Martin Vantage AMRs of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim and Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin, and the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

They are separated in that order by only 15 points in the general classification of the FIA World Championship for GT Drivers. The two Aston Martin Racing crews will, however, have to avoid the slightest racing incident or mechanical problem to prevent the Ferrari duo, which won the title in 2017, from claiming a second title.

Calado and Guidi are 26 points behind Thiim and Sorensen. Victory in an 8-hour WEC race nets 38 points plus an additional point for pole position.

FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Teams, FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Drivers

This past WEC season, the quantity has competed with quality in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur

(LMGTE Am) class, with the largest grid in the history of this category. There is no doubt that in Bahrain the spectacle will be there once again, both in the fight for race victory and the FIA World Endurance Championship Trophies for Drivers and Teams.

Of the 10 entered, no fewer than eight competitors will be aiming for the top 3 places in the final LMGTE Am classification.

Victorious (in class) at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and leader of the provisional general classification, TF Sport and their Aston Martin Vantage AMR could end with an FIA WEC title after their methodical and victorious climb of the endurance racing pyramid.

Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Adam have formed a successful, tight-knit unit with Salih Yoluc. They will have to overcome the Ferrari of AF Corse, just eight points behind, in the hands of 2016 title winners, Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo, together with Dane Nicklas Nielsen.

The fight for third place in the standings will pit together no fewer than five cars and four teams. With just 28.5 points separating them, Dempsey-Proton Racing, Aston Martin Racing, the two Porsches from Team Project 1 and Gulf Racing have much to fight for.