How the #7 Toyota squad moved closer to clinching WEC's 2021 title

In the penultimate round of the 2021 World Endurance Championship, a better run of tyre wear for Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi brought the Toyota trio its third win from five events, as the #7 squad put one hand on the title. Here's how the first of the WEC's two Bahrain enduros played out

Gary Watkins Nov 1, 2021, 1:21 PM

Upd: Nov 5, 2021, 12:34 PM

The two Toyotas were barely a second apart at the end of the opening stint of Saturday's Bahrain 6 Hours and had twice swapped positions in the laps leading up to their first stops. It looked like it was going to be another close one between the Japanese manufacturer's Le Mans Hypercars, but by the end of the following stint the die had been cast in the favour of championship-leading trio Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi.

Conway had dropped back behind Sebastien Buemi on his in-lap and then lost four seconds in the pits to Brendon Hartley, who'd taken over the sister car. 10 laps after the stops at which both Toyotas took left-side tyres only, the Brit was ahead and 20 laps later, when the two GR010 HYBRIDs came into the pits for the second time, he was more than a dozen seconds to the good.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.