While the championship may be lost for Toyota GAZOO Racing, pride is very much still on the table as the Japanese manufacturer, as they head into the 2017 Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain. Having won the last two events, the #8 team will be hoping to make it a clean sweep in Asia as they prepare for their last LMP1 race with another manufacturer for at least 18 months.
The team has been a staple of the FIA World Endurance Championship‘s P1 category for the last few years as the team look to improve on their 2016 results, which only saw fail to even finish on the podium at the Bahrain International Circuit.
“I enjoy racing in Bahrain and I expect we will again be competitive.” said Anthony Davidson. “We go there after back-to-back victories following our performance in Shanghai so we want to finish the season with a hat-trick of wins for the #8 car.”
Davidson though will be looking to secure third in the drivers championship after missing the Circuit of the Americas race putting him 15 points behind his teammates.
The #8 crew has so far had the lions share of the Toyota success in 2017 having taken all of the teams four wins, but despite this has yet to record a pole position.
“I’m looking forward to this weekend,” commented Swiss driver Sebastian Buemi. “Bahrain is a nice track where we have had good results in the past. The weather should be stable so we can concentrate on getting the most out of our car and tyres. Our car should be quite well suited to the characteristics of the circuit, with the heavy braking at the end of long straights. We will do our best to get another win.”
Finally, Kazuki Nakajima weighed in on the race, saying that; “Winning races is always a good motivation so we will go to Bahrain with a lot of confidence after the speed we showed in Shanghai. But it’s another track and another race so we have to be focused and give everything to win again.”
