Besides a dominant 1-2 victory in the 8 Hours of Bahrain, final round of the 2022 World Endurance Championship (WEC), as well as securing a clean sweep of titles, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing also made history by taking a historic Hypercar title double.
Outgoing World Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez took a hard-earned win, their second of the season in their #7 GR010 HYBRID, to confirm the as Hypercar manufacturers’ World Champions.
Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, had started the weekend level on points with their Alpine title rivals. but finished second to become Drivers’ World Champions, adding to their 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours win.
Buemi and Hartley have gained a place in the record books as the first drivers to win 3 titles in the top category of the WEC (previously known as the World Sportscar Championship). Hirakawa, a Le Mans winner in June, capped a remarkable rookie season by becoming Japan’s third WEC champion.
A perfect result in Bahrain was a fitting end to a successful season for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, which now has a fifth world title double from 10 years of WEC competition. Adding to this is a fifth consecutive Le Mans win and eighth victory at the Fuji Speedway. For this inaugural Hypercar season, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing spent a total of 58 hours in competition covering 10,620 kms since the first race in Sebring eight months ago.
The final WEC round
The race began under bright Bahraini sunshine, with air temperatures of 35°C, and the on-track action was equally hot. Buemi led from pole while Maria Lopez tangled with the #36 Alpine, losing third at the start before regaining the place 3 laps later, following a Safety Car deployment.
Buemi held off the challenge of the #93 Peugeot, with Maria Lopez firmly in contention in third. Just 6 seconds covered the top three when the opening pit stops arrived after an hour, during which Maria Lopez was able to leapfrog the #93 for second and closed to the rear of the #8, before Buemi edged out an advantage.
When a technical problem sidelined the #93 after two hours, a full course yellow period allowed both GR010 HYBRIDs to swap drivers. Hartley took over the #8, with Conway in the #7, and they battled throughout their first stint, separated by less than a second until Conway took the lead early in the fourth hour as the sun set over Bahrain International Circuit.
Conway pushed hard to build a gap and at half distance of the 245-lap race, he led by a few seconds going into the next pit stops, where Kobayashi strapped into the cockpit. A lap later, Hartley’s stint ended and Hirakawa brought the #8 back on track directly behind the #7.
Kobayashi (who is also the team principal) gradually extended his advantage to 15 seconds by the end of the fifth hour, doubling the #7 car’s lead over the next hour before Maria Lopez and Buemi returned to their respective cockpits with less than two hours remaining. Further driver changes with 45 minutes to go left Conway as the one to take the chequered flag for the team, finishing 45.471 seconds clear of Hartley in the #8.
8 major titles in one year
During the 2022 season, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has participated in three FIA series and it has achieved the unique feat of winning every available title – eight in total – in the WEC, World Rally Championship and World Rally Raid Championship.
