Next up and last race of the season is....November 30th at Interlagos.
Free Practice 1
Fri 28th November - 13 h 00
Free Practice 2
Fri 28th November - 17 h 30
Free Practice 3
Sat 29th November - 10 h 00
Qualifying Practice
Sat 29th November - 14 h 45
Race
Sun 30th November - 13 h 00
All eyes on the FIA WEC for season finale in Sao Paulo
As the floodlights were being extinguished around the track in Bahrain, and the newly-crowned World Champions were departing to celebrate with their families, friends and teams, attention was already being turned towards the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Four World Championship titles have yet to be decided, including the all-important LMP and GT Manufacturers and, on Sunday 30th November, 26 cars will take to the Interlagos track. The intense competition in the LMP2 category will also come to a definitive conclusion, but to whom will the class crown be awarded?
LMP1 teams pushing to the end
While the pressure is off the shoulders of Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi in the No.8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, the newly crowned Driver Champions will be determined to round off the season on a high with a sixth victory for the Japanese team and the all-important World Endurance Manufacturers Championship title. There are 44 points available in Brazil but Toyota has a 40-point advantage over its nearest rival, Audi, so a solid finish for its two entries is technically all that is required. Kazuki Nakajima returns to the Bahrain-winning No.7 alongside Alex Wurz and Stéphane Sarrazin.
Porsche had its best race of the season so far in Bahrain, and the pace and performance of its technologically sophisticated 919 Hybrid has made its rivals sit up and take notice. The Porsche’s superior straight line speed and the team’s increasing knowledge and experience in top line sportscar racing will undoubtedly offer the reward of a victory in the near future. The driver line ups in the No.14 (Dumas-Jani-Lieb) and No.20 (Bernhard-Webber-Hartley) remain unchanged.
Audi Sport Team Joest had one of its most challenging races in the FIA WEC in the Middle East, and will be anxious to put those memories behind them and also finish the season on a better note. For his home race, Lucas di Grassi will put his local knowledge to good use and he and his team mates, Loïc Duval and Tom Kristensen, plus the Le Mans-winning crew of the No.2 entry (Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer) will be pushing as hard as ever to give Audi a positive end to its 2014 season.
The No.13 Rebellion R-One Toyota (Kraihamer-Belicchi-Leimer) has enjoyed two victories in the last two races, but the LMP1-L Champions (Prost-Heidfeld-Beche) will be hoping to end their season on as high a note as it started. The Lotus team’s No.9 CLM P1/01 AER had an extremely troubled race in Bahrain and Pierre Kaffer and young Austrian driver Lucas Auer will be praying for increased reliability for the final round.
LMP2 title fight goes down to the wire
Late-race dramas for the No.27 SMP Racing ORECA 03 Nissan (Zlobin-Minassian-Mediani) meant that G-Drive Racing’s trio of Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal came away from Bahrain with a Championship lead of eight points over Russian Sergey Zlobin. The Ligier JS P2 had a far from easy 7th round with two long stops to repair collision damage, so they will be looking for a far smoother finale in Brazil.
SMP Racing’s disappointment in the outcome for the No.27 was balanced by a solid performance from its No.37 entry of Kirill Ladygin-Victor Shaitar-Anton Ladygin who finished second under the lights in the desert. The Russians were, however, comprehensively outclassed by the KCMG line up of Matt Howson-Richard Bradley-Alexandre Imperatori who won their second race of the season in the No.47 ORECA 03R Nissan.
There will be only four entries in the LMP2 class for the season finale as Strakka Racing has suffered further set-backs in the technical development of the DOME-designed S103, due to homologation issues, and has been forced to delay its debut to 2015. Its absence, while regrettable, won’t detract from the intense battle that is sure to take place between the remaining competitors in this class for the two remaining titles to be decided: the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams and Drivers.
GT Manufacturers title to be confirmed in Brazil
With all the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships in the LMGTE Pro and Am categories now settled, there remains just one important trophy to be claimed. Ferrari currently has 25 points in hand over Porsche in the World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers classification, and theoretically all five of the Ferrari 458 Italias across the two classes would have to run into significant trouble for Porsche to be able clinch the big prize.
While unlikely, the level of competition across the GTE categories will be as fierce as ever. All three manufacturers took their turn at the head of the Pro class in Bahrain and at the chequered flag there was just 1.8 seconds between the race and Drivers Championship-winning AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander and the Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke. The superior fuel economy of the Ferrari versus the speed and better tyre wear of the Aston Martin versus the traction and performance in unsettled weather conditions of the Porsche…the fight for victory will be as exciting as ever, especially if São Paulo delivers wet weather conditions!
Darryl O’Young returns to the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage in the Pro class alongside the second Brazilian in the race, Fernando Rees, and Alex MacDowall and the trio will be determined to bounce back from a race in Bahrain hampered by an ECU issue.
Aston Martin Racing celebrated two World Championship titles in Bahrain and the No.95 Danish crew is aiming to finish its season on the best note possible with another victory. There are no other changes to the line ups in the LMGTE Am class and it is, once again, the best supported category with seven entries.
The 6 Hours of Sao Paulo takes place on Sunday 30th November, with practice beginning on Friday 28th and qualifying on Saturday 29th November. No matter whether titles have been decided or not, the action will be non-stop in Brazil and every competitor will be determined to close the season with as many points as possible. Don’t miss a minute of the action!
FULL ENTRY LIST:
http://www.fiawec.com/wpphpFichiers/...ist_151114.pdf