Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa secured the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship with a second-place finish in the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing trio trailed home the #7 of team-mates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez to make it a one-two finish for the Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar entries, with the Alpine ELF Team entry of Andre Negrao, Nico Lapierre, and Matthieu Vaxiviere completing the podium.
The title victory was the third for both Buemi and Hartley, while Hirakawa’s title arrives at the end of his debut season in the WEC.
“It’s amazing to win the World Championship this year,” Buemi said.
“We maximised all the opportunities and doing the double of Le Mans and the title is an amazing feeling.
“Special credit to Ryo [Hirakawa] because he came into the team as a newcomer and he won in his first year.
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“It is not easy to jump into a Hypercar and fight at the front against such strong competition but he has been an amazing team-mate. Car #7 is always strong and it is never easy to beat them, as they showed today.”
In LMP2, Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez, and Will Stevens secured the title in their the #38 Oreca-Gibson LMP2 with a third-place finish, as Team WRT’s Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, and Rene Rast claimed victory in the #31 Oreca 07 Gibson, ahead of the #23 Oreca 07 Gibson of Alex Lynn, Oliver Jarvis, and Josh Pierson.
In LMP2 Pro/Am, Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, and Alessio Rovera secured the title in the #83 Oreca 07 Gibson.
In LM GTE Pro Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina claimed the class victory in their AF Corse #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, while in LM GTE Am Matteo Cairoli, Mikkel Pedersen, and Nicolas Leuitwiler secured the win in their #46 Porsche 911 RSR – 19.
The 2023 WEC season will commence with the 1000 Miles of Sebring on March 17.
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