The 2015 World
Endurance Championship season will come to and end tomorrow at the 6
hours of Bahrain. With still 8 titles to be decided, we're in for a
thrilling season finale which should give us some fierce racing form
start to finish.
In LMP1 it's Porsche vs
Audi, with the #17 Porsche crew (Webber/Hartley/Bernhard) has the
edge over the #7 Audi (Lotterer/Tréluyer/Fässler) with their 4
consecutive wins since the Nürburgring. Audi already showed some
good pace in the first 2 practice sessions and topped the timesheets
at night practice yesterday, so they won't go down without a proper
fight. To win the title though, Audi needs to win the race and hope
for a DNF or major troubles for the Porsche. The #17 has an advantage
of 12 points over the #7, having to finish at least fourth to win the
2015 drivers and teams titles. The Toyota's are way back in the
championship and out of contention for the titles, already focussing
on the 2016 season and celebrating Alex Wurz who's driving his last race this weekend. The manufacturer championship has already been
secured by Porsche in Shangai earlier this month. In the privateer
class, the #12 Rebellion Racing R-One AER already secured the title
ahead of the #4 ByKolles CLM AER, and the sister Rebellion car. No
Nick Heidfeld though at Rebellion this weekend, the German still
recovering from a hand injury sustained at the last Formula E race.
LMP2 saw some fierce
competition during the whole season between the #26 G-Drive Racing
Ligier Nissan of Roman Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal and the #47
KCMG Oreca05 Nissan driven by Matt Howson, Richard Bradley and
occasionally Nick Tandy. The #26 has an advantage of 16 points to
the #47 and needs to finish at least on fourth place to secure the
title (or fifth if they secure pole position). This battle will go
to the wire, with both title contenders and several other teams in
LMP2 wanting to end the season on a high. Signatech Alpine took the
win in Shangai and have already shown some steady pace during this
weeks practice sessions, with Strakka Racing and Team Sard Morand
eyeing a podium finish in Bahrein. AF Racing races its BR01 for the
first time in the WEC, it will be interesting to see how their LMP2
compares to the full season WEC entries.
The batlle for all 3
titles in GTE Pro will go between Porsche and Ferrari, the #91
Manthey Team Porsche holding a 14 point advantage over the #51 AF
Corse Ferrari and 15 points compared to the #71 AF Corse Ferrari.
Porsche clinches the championship if they finish third or better. If
they finish fourth and the #51 takes the win and pole position, both
cars will be level on points and wins but the title will go to the
Ferrari with 1 more second place scored through the season. Absent in
Shangai due to BOP adjustments, the all Danish #95 Aston Martin is
back in the class with another change in the air restrictor. If this
gets the Astons back in the mix for a podium finish, and even a win,
the title scenario can only become more interesting.
In LMGTE, the #72 SMP
Racing Ferrari 458 (Basov/Bertolini/Shaytar) has a comfortable
advantage of 19 points to the #83 AF Corse Ferrari
(Aguas/Collard/Perrodo). The SMP crew needs to come home in seventh
(read : finish the race) to secure the title. AF Corse could clinch
the title if they win and the the Russian Ferrari doesn't make it to
the finish. No Patrick Dempsey in the #77 Proton Porsche this race,
he's been replaced by Christian Ried. In the #88 Marco Mapelli takes
Ried's place. With a change in BOP for the Aston Martins, they
should be more competitive again in the class. The #50 Larbre
Corvette C7 already showed strong pace in practice, if they don't run
into trouble this race, this should be a podium contender tomorrow.
The final WEC race of
the season starts at 15:00 CET tomorrow and will be broadcasted live on
MotorsTV, the WEC website and www.24h-lemans.com .
Useful links :
