The 2019 8 Hours of Bahrain, formally known as the 2019 BAPCO 8 Hours of Bahrain, for sponsorship reasons, was an endurance sportscar racing event held on 14 December 2019, as the fourth round of the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship. This would mark the return of the FIA WEC to the Bahrain International Circuit for the first time since 2017, and would also be the inaugural running of the race, in an extended 8 hours format, having previously been run as the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
The race was won overall by the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid run by Toyota Gazoo Racing, and driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José María López. The trio had benefited from the opening lap collision at Turn 2, between the front row starters, the #1 Rebellion R13 run by Rebellion Racing, and the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 run by Team LNT, to take the lead from the first lap of the race, from fourth on the grid.
The Le Mans Prototype LMP2 class was won by the #22 Oreca 07 run by United Autosports, and driven by Paul di Resta, Philip Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque. The trio had also benefited from the opening lap chaos, with the car holding the class lead on lap one, and even running second overall at one point, but later falling down the overall order, as the LMP1s climbed their way back up above the secondary class runners during the race.
Background The provisional calendar for the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship was unveiled at the 2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, featuring eight races, on five continents, starting at Silverstone in September 2019 with a four-hour race, and ending with the Le Mans 24 Hours in June 2020. It was noted that for first time in the FIA World Endurance Championship, 4 and 8 hour races would be introduced, at the Silverstone Circuit, Shanghai International Circuit, and the Bahrain International Circuit, following a fan survey which was conducted by the championship despite there being an overwhelming preference being shown for races with durations of 6, 12 and 24 hours.
Entry list A provisional entry list was issued on the 12th of November 2019, with 31 cars split across 4 classes, with all 4 full season LMP1 entrants listed, alongside 9 LMP2 cars, up from the 8 full season cars due to the addition of the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01, with a driver lineup for Jean-Éric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Job van Uitert. The GTE Classes saw no additional cars entered, with all 6 full season GTE-Pro cars, and 11 GTE-Am cars being listed. Majority of the race seats were indicated to have been filled, with the exception of the 2 Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1s, and the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR. The list also saw changes to the driver lineup for the #57 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR, with Larry ten Voorde returning for a second race, alongside Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen replacing Felipe Fraga, who would be competing in the Stock Car Brasil season finale, which clashed with the 8 Hours of Bahrain. On 26 November, Team LNT announced its driver lineup for the race, with the majority of its drivers continuing with the team, with the exception of Egor Orudzhev, who would make way for Chris Dyson, alongside a minor shakeup in the driver lineups for each car. On 10 December 2019, it was announced that Khaled Al Qubaisi and Adrien De Leeneer would complete the lineup for the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche, replacing Angelo Negao and Will Bamber.
Qualifying
Qualifying Report
In LMP1, the #1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R13 would score a 2nd consecutive Pole Position, once more piping another Team LNT Ginetta to pole position. Norman Nato and Bruno Senna set an average time of 1:42.979 that put the #1 Rebellion R13 0.144 seconds clear of the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 of Charlie Robertson and Ben Hanley. Toyota Gazoo Racing's Toyota TS050 Hybrids occupied the second row of the grid with Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima out-qualifying their teammates from the #7 car, Mike Conway and José María López by less than a tenth of a second, with the average time achieved by Hartley and Nakajima in the #8 Toyota, being 0.863 seconds off the pole-sitting Rebellion. The #8 had also out-qualified the #7 in spite of the fact that it was running with a slightly larger success penalty than its sister car for the weekend. The #6 Team LNT finished 5th in the session, rounding out the LMP1 field.
In LMP2, Paul di Resta and Philip Hanson handed United Autosports its maiden WEC pole, after setting an average lap time of 1:45.357 in the team's #22 Oreca 07. Di Resta had been the only driver to set a sub-1:45 lap time among the first set of drivers, while the silver-rated Hanson consolidated his co-driver's work, scoring the second-quickest time in the second set of drivers, resulting in the #22 United Autosports team pipping the second-placed #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry to pole, by 0.292 seconds. Guest entry, G-Drive Racing finished 3rd in the session, with Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert qualifying the car, with the TDS-operated car starting alongside the Shanghai winning Jota Sport Oreca on the second row, whilst Cool Racing and High Class Racing would line up in fifth and sixth. The #35 Signatech Alpine would lineup on the fourth row, next to the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca. The sole non-Oreca in the LMP2 field, the #47 Cetilar Racing Dallara P217, run by AF Corse rounded out the LMP2 pack, with the car finishing nearly half a second behind the #29.
In GTE-Pro, Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni finished the session on class pole, claiming Porsche's third consecutive GTE-Pro pole in 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship. This was also the 2nd pole of the season scored by the pair, who had also sat on pole for the 6 Hours of Fuji. The pair in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR combined for an average time of 1:56.485, narrowly outpacing their class championship-leading teammates in the #92, Kévin Estre and Michael Christensen by 0.060 seconds. The pair of AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos qualified third and fourth, with the #51 entry of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi leading the pair of Ferraris, the #51 pair still looking to bounce back following their exclusion from the 4 Hours of Shanghai. Aston Martin Racing struggled in the session, with the #95 entry of Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim qualifying fifth, nearly a second adrift of the pole-sitting Porsche, in what usually was a tightly spaced class, after struggling due a flat-spotted tire. The sister #97 car, would instead start last, after Maxime Martin's time was deleted due to him exceeding track limits.
In GTE-Am, Ben Keating claimed his first WEC class pole, teaming with Larry ten Voorde to bring the #57 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR to the class pole. The #54 AF Corse Ferrari qualified second, followed by the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR in third, the #54 preventing a Porsche front row in the Pro-Am class. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari, which is in the title battle with the #90 TF Sport, would start from fourth, after Francois Perrodo was unable to replicate the performance of his teammate Nicklas Nielsen, the Dane having put the #83 atop the running order for the class before the driver swaps.
Qualifying Results Pole Position winners in each class are in bold ClassTeamAverage Time1LMP1No. 1 Rebellion Racing1:42.979 -12LMP1No. 5 Team LNT1:43.123 +0.14423LMP1No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing1:43.497 +0.51834LMP1No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing1:43.842 +0.86345LMP1No. 6 Team LNT1:43.887 +0.90856LMP2No. 22 United Autosports1:45.357+2.37867LMP2No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing1:45.649 +2.67078LMP2No. 26 G-Drive Racing1:45.953 +2.97489LMP2No. 38 Jota Sport1:46.415 +3.436910LMP2No. 42 Cool Racing1:47.265 +4.2861011LMP2No. 33 High Class Racing1:47.323 +4.3441112LMP2No. 36 Signatech Alpine Elf1:47.725 +4.7461213LMP2No. 29 Racing Team Nederland1:48.899 +5.9201314LMP2No. 47 Cetilar Racing1:49.474 +6.4951415LMGTE-ProNo. 91 Porsche GT Team1:55.485 +12.5061516LMGTE-ProNo. 92 Porsche GT Team1:55.545 +12.5661617LMGTE-ProNo. 51 AF Corse1:56.087 +13.1081718LMGTE-ProNo. 71 AF Corse1:56.318 +13.3391819LMGTE-ProNo. 95 Aston Martin Racing1:56.389 +13.4101920LMGTE-AmNo. 57 Team Project 11:57.602+14.6232021LMGTE-AmNo. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing1:57.661 +14.6822122LMGTE-AmNo. 83 AF Corse1:57.690 +14.7112223LMGTE-AmNo. 56 Team Project 11:57.863 +14.8842324LMGTE-AmNo. 86 Gulf Racing1:57.977 +14.9982425LMGTE-AmNo. 98 Aston Martin Racing1:58.002 +15.0232526LMGTE-AmNo. 90 TF Sport1:58.047 +15.0682627LMGTE-AmNo. 62 Red River Sport1:58.217 +15.2382728LMGTE-AmNo. 70 MR Racing1:58.635 +15.6562829LMGTE-AmNo. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing1:59.959 +16.9802930LMGTE-ProNo. 97 Aston Martin Racing1:56.253 +13.2743031LMGTE-AmNo. 54 AF Corse1:56.903 +13.92431
Race
Race Report
The #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Mike Conway led the opening hour of the 8 Hours of Bahrain, benefiting from an incident between the two front-row cars of Bruno Senna and Charlie Robertson. Senna in the pole-sitting #1 Rebellion Racing R13 and Robertson in the 2nd placed #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 were spun around following contact between the pair, which allowed Conway to easily slip through the chaos, and swiftly take the lead of the race. During the incident, Robertson appeared to lose the rear of the #5 Team LNT Ginetta as the pack came into the Turn 2 left-hand kink, running into Senna. As both cars collided, the #5 bore most of the brunt of the impact, while Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota was also caught up in the chaos, losing lost seven positions in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. The incident scattered the LMP1 field, and shuffled the order of the race, with the LMP2 class leader, the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07, with Paul di Resta in second overall, as Conway sped away in the lead of the race. Second in the LMP1 class was Mike Simpson in the #6 Ginetta, who was fifth overall, while Buemi and Senna were left further behind, with Robertson losing 2 laps owing to repairs to the Ginetta. The result of the carnage at Turn 1 meant that for the first half hour of the race, the LMP2 cars ran ahead of all P1s, bar the lead Toyota. In LMP2, di Resta made the best of his pole position, leading through the opening round of pit stops from Job van Uitert in G-Drive Racing's Aurus 01. Nicolas Lapierre was third for a while for Cool Racing, but the eventually fell back during towards the end of the opening stint as Andre Negrao, Kenta Yamashita and Anthony Davidson surged past in the #35, #33, and #37 Orecas.
In GTE Pro, Alessandro Pier Guidi led the first stint in GTE-Pro after a first-corner shuffle led to pole man Gianmaria Bruni dropping four positions in his #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Bruni was knocked out wide when Pier Guidi locked up slightly into Turn 1 and dropped down the order, as Kevin Estre, Marco Sørensen, and Miguel Molina overtook him. By the end of hour one, Pier Guidi had built up a three-second gap to Estre while Bruni had charged back up to third, having overtaken Molina, before later gaining an additional place, when Sørensen brought the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE in for an early regular pit stop. Team Project 1 controlled the opening hour of the race in GTE-Am, with a 1–2, as Ben Keating in the #57 converted his pole position into a massive 15-second lead ahead of Egidio Perfetti in the #56. Third in class behind the two Porsches was the #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana.