Toyota Gazoo Racing rounded off their 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season with a one-two finish at the 8 Hours of Bahrain, continuing an impressive run of wins in Sakhir.
The victory for the #7 GR010 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries marked the Japanese manfuacturer’s ninth successive win in Bahrain, a series that goes all the way back to 2017.
In an unrelenting eight-hour battle that featured few interventions or interruptions, Toyota’s success was down to a smart strategy and some impressive stints – particularly from Dutchman de Vries. The #7 car came home 19 seconds ahead of the sister #8 machine after a late-race safety car had bunched up the field.
It was precisely this safety car that catapulted the #8 crew of Sébastien Buemi, Brendan Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa back up the field after a drive-through penalty had seen the trio slip down to the lower half of the top ten.
The one-two finish, coupled with Porsche’s failure to score points on their final FIA WEC appearance before departing the series in their current guise, even handed the Cologne-based team second in the manufacturers’ championship.
Ferrari secure championship in style
Ferrari AF Corse brought their pair of works 499Ps home in third and fourth to remove any lingering doubts that they would surrender the manufacturers’ title to Porsche.
The weekend started with some concerns in the Ferrari garage after a poor qualifying. The #51 crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi only made it through to Hyperpole by the skin of their teeth, while the #50 and #83 cars were absent from the shoot-out entirely.
Come race day, however, the scarlet prototypes proved that they had the pace over the course of a stint to compete for the top placings. Originally running in fourth, the #50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen was allowed to pass the #51 in the closing stages in order to steal third place in the drivers’ championship from the #6 Porsche crew.
Porsche bow out with a whimper, plenty of promise from Aston Martin
It was the ultimate ignominy for Porsche Penske Motorsport, with all hopes of any glory in what is set to be their final season of FIA WEC dashed. Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell and Laurens Vanthoor cut solemn figures in the pit lane as their #6 Porsche 963 crossed the line in 13th. The sister car of Julien Andlauer, Mathieu Jaminet and debutant Laurens Heinrich came home just behind in 14th.
One of the most impressive performances of the day came from Aston Martin Thor Team with their pair of Aston Martin Valkyries. The #009 machine of Alex Ribeira, Marco Sørensen and Romain de Angelis led the race on pace at around the halfway stage – meaning that every single Hypercar manufacturer has held the lead at one point or other in the 2025 season.
A drive-through penalty for a safety car violation in the second half of the race relegated the #009 back down the order. However, the team showed that it has the potential to challenge for race wins as the first year of the programme comes to an end.
Lexus win close finale in LMGT3, while Porsche wrap up title convicingly
The #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 of Petru Umbrarescu, Clemens Schmid and José María López became the seventh different winner in eight races in LMGT3, but was pushed hard by a number of class competitors.
Among them was the #61 Iron Lyxn Mercedes-AMG of Matt Berry, Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin, which scored the team’s best result of the season by some distance, finishing just under a second behind the Lexus. Third went to the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage.
Starting the race 17th on the grid was anything but ideal for title favourites Manthey 1ST Phorm. But Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz put in an excellent performance to bring their #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R home in fourth and seal the championship.
A full list of results can be found here. The FIA WEC reconvenes for the start of the 2026 season at the 1812km of Qatar on 28 February.
Images (c) Endurance Archive / Walter Schruff