8 Hours of Bahrain: Toyota, Alpine Podiums at WEC Finale

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The finale to the WEC season saw Toyota’s Kazuki Nakajima finish his endurance career with victory in the #8 GR010 HYBRID shared with Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, in the #7 GR010 HYBRID, retained the drivers’ title by finishing Saturday’s race, the sixth and final round of the season, in second place.

Kobayashi is now Japan’s first two-time World Champion on four wheels while López becomes the second Argentinian to win five FIA World Championships, matching Juan Manuel Fangio.

Chasing Toyota, the Alpine Elf Matmut Endurance Team completed its first campaign in the premier Hyper Car class of the FIA World Endurance Championship with its sixth podium finish in as many races.

Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere demonstrated their toughness to return from last to third following a differential shift problem. Alpine ends the year in second place in the final general classification. Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere finish third in the drivers general classification.

Results

1. #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 247 laps
2. #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +7.351secs
3. #36 Alpine (Negrao/Lapierre/Vaxivierre) +6 lap
4. #31 Team WRT (Frijns/Habsburg/Milesi) +7 laps
5. #38 JOTA (Gonzalez/Da Costa/Davidson) +7 laps
6. #28 JOTA (Galael/Vandoorne/Blomqvist) +7 laps