‘All to play for in Bahrain’: Buemi

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Former Bahrain resident and Toyota Gazoo Racing star Sebastien Buemi is hoping to come away with a Hypercar title double when the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship wraps up next month with the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

The endurance racing spectacle is scheduled to be held at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East” on 11 and 12 November as the final round of this FIA WEC campaign.

Buemi and his teammates Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota GR010-Hybrid currently share the top spot on the Hypercar drivers’ championship standings with the Alpine trio of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre; while Toyota Gazoo Racing are the leaders in the Hypercar manufacturers’ table.

Buemi is hoping that his team’s fine recent form and past victories in Sakhir will help them secure the double by season’s end. “We’re level on points with Alpine in the drivers’ championship so it’s all to play for in Bahrain,” Buemi was quoted as saying.

“I don’t think it particularly changes things for us as a team because we would anyway go there with the target of winning the race.

“Obviously, for car 8 we only have to finish ahead of the Alpine to secure the championship, so we will manage the race and try to achieve that without taking any risks.

Our focus will clearly be to win both championships.” Buemi says it will be key for him and his teammates to stay completely focused on the job at hand and hope for “a clean race”.

“The important thing in Bahrain is to stay calm, make sure the car runs reliably and make no mistakes,” said the Swiss driver, who, with Hartley and Hirakawa, triumphed in the season’s previous round in Japan.

“We had a DNF in Spa due to a technical issue, and we lost a bit of time in Monza because I had to manage an issue with the front motor, so we need to have a clean race in Bahrain.

“Of course, finding the right strategy on tyres and having perfect pit stops, like we had in Fuji, will be important to maximise our result in the race.”

The Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain will feature a packed 37-car grid with competition in four race categories, featuring some of the biggest brands in all of motoring.

The world’s top endurance racing teams and drivers will be battling it out from day to night around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track, making for a brilliant spectacle that flags off under the afternoon sun and then wraps up under the stars while being brilliantly lit by BIC’s state-ofthe-art floodlights.

BIC has also planned an incredible line-up of off-track entertainment for the race weekend.

Fans can expect incredible stunt shows together with amazing family attractions.

Tickets cost just BD5 for adults and BD2.5 for kids for the twoday weekend programme.

They can be purchased online at bahraingp.com or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.