While the Drivers’ Championship may have already been decided, there are still seven championship titles up for grabs as the FIA World Endurance Championship heads into its final round in Bahrain.
Although the LMP1 trophies are all sealed, Toyota will still be looking to take victory at Bahrain having robbed of what looked like a sure win in Shanghai thanks to a puncture. The Japanese manufacturer will once again field two TS030 Hybrids to try and stop the charging Audis.
Trying to spoil Toyota’s party will be the brace of Audi R18 e-tron quattros, led by the #2 squad of Loic Duval, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, who wrapped up the drivers’ title in Shanghai. Chasing down their team-mates will be reigning champions Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, who will be looking to take the final bow of the win of the year and take Audi’s total to 7 out of 8 2013 WEC wins. Rounding out the LMP1 category is Rebellion Racing, who have already wrapped up the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams and will be using the final round to gather vital data for the 2014 season.
LMP2 will see OAK Racing looking to hold on to the top two positions in the LMP2 Teams’ Trophy, with the #24 car trailing the #35 by just 13 points, whilst holding a 20.5 point lead over the third placed Pecom Racing, who are just a further two points ahead of G-Drive Racing.
In terms of the LMP2 Drivers’ Trophy, Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman lead their OAK Racing team-mates Alex Brundle, David Heinemeier Hansson and Olivier Pla by 15 points.
Meanwhile, the GT Classes see Aston Martin heading to Bahrain in the lead of all five available championships. Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke lead the way in the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, but only hold a 5.5 point lead over AF Corse‘s Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni, while Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall hold a similarly thin lead in the Teams’ and Drivers’ Trophies.
The on track action in Bahrain begins on Thursday 28 November with two 90-minute practice sessions, with a third and final practice session and qualifying taking place on Friday 29 November. The 6 Hours of Bahrain will begin at 3pm local time on Saturday 30 November, racing in to darkness.
