The sixth and final round of the 2022 World Endurance Championship, decided by gearbox failures, a Ferrari one-two and a Toyota win after 245 laps.
Toyota's No. 7 car won the 2022 finale in Bahrain after 245 laps. Ferrari took the GTE Pro manufacturers' title, and Team Project 1 filled the top two GTE Am places on 12 November.
Bahrain closed the 2022 World Endurance Championship with its eight-hour race on 12 November. It was the sixth and final round of the season, and the eleventh edition of the event, only the fourth to run in the longer format. The No. 7 Toyota took the overall win after 245 laps, while Ferrari secured the GTE Pro manufacturers' title.
When and where was the 2022 8 Hours of Bahrain held?
The race was held on 12 November 2022 in Bahrain, and it closed a championship that had been reshaped during the year. The race had come round eleven times before, although this was only its fourth outing in the longer format. The FIA WTCR Race of Bahrain, the second-last round of the touring car series that year, ran as a support event, so the sportscar teams shared the weekend with touring cars.
The provisional calendar for the 2022 season was released in August 2021. It brought back the Sebring and Fuji rounds, while the Portimao round and the second Bahrain race were dropped. The finale in Bahrain therefore became the last stop of a season that was built around a rebalanced set of venues.
A broken gearbox, a Ferrari one-two and a Toyota win after 245 laps decided the last WEC round of 2022.
Who was on the entry list for the final round?
Several changes marked the final round. The No. 44 ARC Bratislava squad returned after missing the Fuji race, and Miroslav Konopka came back to drive, joined by Mathias Beche and Richard Bradley. Rene Rast was back in the No. 31 WRT car after missing Fuji, because the race clashed with the 2022 DTM round at Spa.
Nico Muller took over from James Rossiter in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, a seat he would hold for a full season in 2023. Renger van der Zande took Muller's place in the No. 10 Vector Sport car. Glickenhaus missed the race for reasons that were not given, which left a gap in the manufacturer line-up.
Team Project 1's No. 56 Porsche said goodbye to Ollie Millroy and Brendan Iribe, and Phillip Hyatt and Gunnar Jeannette took their seats. The changes were modest, but they showed how much the field depended on drivers moving between programmes.
How did the race start?
Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota controlled the start from pole, leading the way ahead of the No. 93 Peugeot of DiResta, which tried to dive around the outside. The No. 94 Peugeot had a slow start and was jumped immediately by the No. 36 Alpine, which then overtook the No. 7 at turn 4 when it ran wide.
Lopez won the place back with a move at turn 1 on lap 3, and the No. 22 United LMP2 car overtook the No. 41 off the track on lap 1. The No. 22 later received a 10-second penalty an hour into the race. A safety car came out almost at once, after a spin by the No. 77 GTE Am car at the exit of turn 10 on lap 1.
What happened in the first hours of the race?
The early exchanges set a pattern that lasted for much of the afternoon. The Toyotas and the Ferraris traded positions at the front, while the Porsche and Peugeot cars were often forced into defensive moves in the traffic.
The early laps were dominated by the LMH cars and by a close fight in GTE Pro. On lap 7 the Porsche of Bruni briefly pushed the No. 51 Ferrari off at turn 6, and the top three LMH cars were separated by about 1.5 seconds by lap 10. Calado soon reported rising rear tyre temperatures, and by lap 15 the No. 51 was about six seconds off the lead.
The No. 52 Ferrari took second on lap 19 with a late dive at the final corner, and on lap 25 it passed the No. 92 Porsche at turn 9 to claim the lead. The No. 36 Alpine pitted on lap 27, with Vaxivere taking over from Lapierre. A full-course yellow followed on lap 34 for a tyre that had come off the No. 71 Ferrari after contact with the No. 44 ARC car.
That contact cost the No. 44 team seven laps during a long stop. On lap 41 Menezes in the No. 94 Peugeot passed the No. 36 on the final corner to take fourth. On lap 48 the No. 86 and the No. 1 LMP2 car came together at turn 9, and the No. 86 later received a drive-through.
How did the middle of the race change the order?
The No. 93 Peugeot came to a halt at turn 1 of lap 59 with its gearbox broken, and DiResta reported that the gearbox was finished. A second full-course yellow was called on lap 60, and the No. 93 got going again after the period began. The car returned to the pits, where DiResta handed over to a new driver.
When it came back out, Vergne set the fastest lap of the race at 1:49.709. In GTE Pro the No. 52 pressed the No. 64 Corvette, and it moved past at turn 7 of lap 80. That gave Ferrari a 1-2 in GTE Pro, albeit with the two cars separated by 30 seconds.
In LMH the No. 7 of Conway had caught the No. 8 of Hartley as the cars ran into traffic. Hartley reported downshifting issues on the No. 8, and the No. 7 took the place on the back straight of lap 95. Conway then built a lead of 1.6 seconds across the following pair of laps.
Further back, the No. 64 passed the No. 92 at turn 8 for third at the 4h20m mark. The No. 94 pitted on lap 113 and changed drivers, and the No. 36 pitted on lap 115. The No. 94 later stopped at turn 1 of lap 119, and it went straight into the garage.
Which incidents decided the closing hours?
The final pit stops mattered as much as the pace. Both LMH cars pitted for the last time with 48 minutes remaining, and Conway and Hartley took over from Lopez and Buemi. Those stops were the last big strategy calls of the season, and the order changed little after them.
The No. 93 was officially out of the race with 1h50m to go, after a broken fourth gear. The No. 51 Ferrari then began to suffer as well, losing fourth gear on lap 188. Calado reported gearbox oil problems on lap 191, and the car was losing ground fast.
Both Ferraris pitted around lap 194, but the No. 51 was sent out of the pits without repairs. The No. 52 went by the No. 91 at turn 10 on lap 197, and the No. 92 got ahead of the No. 51 on lap 202. That dropped the championship-leading car to last in its class, with Pier Guidi having to nurse it to the flag.
By the end of the race the No. 46 Project 1 Porsche had taken the GTE Am lead with an hour and 8 minutes to go. The No. 51 was also warned for abusing track limits on lap 210, after it had been forced to downshift from fifth to third. The No. 56 overtook the No. 85 at turn 4 on lap 239, after which the Team Project 1 pair held a one-two.
On the final lap the No. 91 pitted and handed its third place to the No. 92, which lifted that car into second in the drivers' title. The No. 7 crossed the line after 245 laps, and its championship-winning teammate finished 45 seconds behind. The No. 31 WRT won the LMP2 class with a comfortable margin over the No. 23 United.
Each class produced its own story. The Toyotas controlled LMH, the WRT car was dominant in LMP2 with its 50 second lead, the Ferraris and Porsches fought through GTE Pro, and Team Project 1 and the Iron Dames led GTE Am. That variety made the finale a race decided by strategy and reliability as much as by one-lap speed.
How did each class finish?
| Class | Winner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LMH | No. 7 Toyota | 245 laps; No. 8 finished 45 seconds later |
| LMP2 | No. 31 WRT | Clear of No. 23 United; No. 38 Jota third |
| GTE Pro | No. 52 Ferrari | Won the final race of the class; Ferrari took the manufacturers' title |
| GTE Am | No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche | Team Project 1 took the top two spots; No. 85 Iron Dames third; No. 33 TF Sport fourth |
Who won the championships?
The No. 8 Toyota crew were the LMH drivers' champions, and the No. 38 Jota crew took the LMP2 title. The No. 51 Ferrari crew of Pier Guidi and Calado were the GTE Pro drivers' champions, despite finishing the race with a broken gearbox and a fourth-gear failure.
The GTE Am title went to the No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin, which finished fourth on the day. Ferrari also led the GTE manufacturers' championship over Porsche by 13 points at the closing stage, and it claimed the manufacturers' title as the No. 52 took the final win of the class. The drivers' lead had been only 4 points over the No. 52 crew near the end, so the title fight ran to the final hour.
Why did the Bahrain finale matter?
The race was the last round of the 2022 WEC season, so it decided several titles in one afternoon. Toyota won overall, Ferrari secured the GTE Pro manufacturers' title, and the drivers' championships were settled on the same weekend. The result gave the sport a clear set of champions to take into the next season.
For the fans, the race was a reminder of how fragile endurance racing can be. A broken gearbox removed the Peugeot early, and the leading Ferrari had to limp home with its own gearbox problems. Those failures did not stop the drivers from fighting for every place until the final lap.
