Points Make Title Prizes: LMP1

As we enter the final month of the championship and penultimate race of the year, Champions could be crowned in Shanghai this weekend as ‘Title Judgement Day’ nears in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship.

After Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima closed the gap in Japan two weeks ago to 39 points, Toyota still has a possibility of taking the Drivers’ crown. 
No matter how remote this is, you can be sure that the Swiss and Japanese alliance, combined with British ace Anthony Davidson (who cannot take the crown after missing the COTA event) will fight to the very end.

There is no escaping the reality though that Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber just need to score a third place finish this weekend to scoop the FIA World Endurance Drivers Championship – potentially a second championship for Hartley and Bernhard and a first for Bamber. 

Even if Buemi and Nakajima take a maximum 26-point haul, the Porsche trio will be crowned champions with third position.

However, Fuji witnessed the No.2 Porsche finish fourth, its lowest position all season, so it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the title could go down to the final race in Bahrain later this month.

The FIA World Endurance Manufacturers’ title is within Porsche’s grasp too, and all they need to do is make sure they are not outscored by their Japanese rivals by more than 14.5 points this weekend.

If Toyota take a 1-2 (with pole) in China this weekend, and Porsche claim 3rd and 4th, it would not be quite enough for the silverware to go to Weissach. If this scenario played out, then the gap would be 42.5pts going forward, meaning that Porsche would need just two points at Bahrain to seal the deal.

In short, and reliability apart, Toyota really must get a clean sweep this weekend to take it to the final race, something it has not done since the corresponding Shanghai race exactly three years ago.

Should Porsche be successful here this weekend, it would secure a remarkable hat-trick of teams’ titles for Porsche to add to their three-in-a-row success at Le Mans.