WEC title fight to heat up in Bahrain as both entry lists revealed
The 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship titles for Hypercar, LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am will heat up in the Bahraini desert next month for the FIA WEC’s first double-header.
It will be all to play for in Bahrain as a total of 63 points will be available across both weekends (25 points for round 5 and 38 points for the season-finale). There is also one extra point available for the fastest team in qualifying for each event. Thirty-two cars will travel to the Middle East to compete in the WEC’s final two events including 14 LMGTE Am cars.
Round five of the WEC – the 6 Hours of Bahrain – will take place on Saturday 30 October and will be run in daylight. The race will start at 11h00 local time and finish six hours later at 17h00, just as the sun is setting.
The WEC season-finale - the 8 Hours of Bahrain - will be staged the following weekend (Saturday 6 November) and will start in daytime and conclude in the dark. The green flag for the race will be dropped at 14h00 until 22h00, providing a challenge for the drivers as they encounter changes in track temperature and daylight on the circuit. The 2021 World Champions will be crowned following the chequered flag on Saturday 6 November.
In Hypercars, only nine points currently separate the category leading No. 7 car (Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez) and the No. 8 car with Buemi, Nakajima and Hartley at the wheel. Alpine Elf Matmut are 51 points behind Toyota in the manufacturers’ standings so even though it’s unlikely, it could still be mathematically possible for the French squad to seal the 2021 title.
LMGTE Pro, meanwhile, sees just 15 points separating Ferrari who is leading the category and Porsche which is currently second. All four GTE Pro entries will be battling hard for the drivers’ and teams’ titles.
Meanwhile, LMP2 will see the closest battle of all with just 23 points separating the top five crews and only one point between the top two (JOTA and Team WRT). In the new-for-2021 FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Pro/Am teams, just nine points separate DragonSpeed USA, Racing Team Nederland and ReamTeam Racing.
LMGTE Am sees the largely dominant AF Corse No. 83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the top of the standings with a total of 102 points and with a comfortable lead over TF Sport in second with 65.5 points. However, with 14 cars in this competitive category anything could happen in Bahrain, and with 63 points on offer over both weekends the LMGTE Am title fight is certainly far from being over!
Click HERE for the 6 Hours of Bahrain entry list.
Click HERE for the 8 Hours of Bahrain entry list.
Click HERE for the latest timetable.
