The 2024 8 Hours of Bahrain (officially known as the 2024 Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain) was an

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from an ...

sportscar racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

event held on 2 November 2024, as the eighth and final round of the

2024 FIA World Endurance Championship The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship is the twelfth season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The ser ...

. It was the thirteenth running of the

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of ev ...

, and the sixth running of the event in an extended 8-hour format.

Background

The event, which ran over a duration of eight hours for the sixth time in a row, was announced during the

2023 24 Hours of Le Mans The 91st 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 91e 24 Heures du Mans), also known as the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, Centenaire des 24 Heures du Mans), was an Endurance racing (motorsport), automobile endurance race for tea ...

weekend. The

8 Hours of Bahrain The 8 Hours of Bahrain (previously 6 Hours of Bahrain) (بطولة ست ساعات في البحرين) is a sports car race that is held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was created for the FIA World Endurance Champio ...

has been featured on the calendar since the series' inception in 2012.

Entry list

The entry list was published on 17 October 2024, and saw several changes compared to the previous entry list.

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships un ...

re-joined the No. 2 Cadillac Racing crew, after previously having driven at the 2024 Qatar 1812 km. After

Nicolas Lapierre Nicolas Lapierre (born 2 April 1984) is a French professional racing driver. He raced with Toyota and with Alpine Racing in the past seasons of the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is a two-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring, with overal ...

's decision to retire from racing with immediate effect,

Jules Gounon Jules Gounon (born 31 December 1994 in Aubenas) is an Andorran-based French professional racing driver. He is best known for his victories in the 24 Hours of Spa in 2017 and 2022 and Bathurst 12 Hour in 2020 and 2022. Career 1994-2015: Youth in ...

took over his seat in the No. 35 Alpine Endurance Team entry, whilst

Charles Milesi Charles Milesi (born 4 March 2001) is a French racing driver. He is the son of Patrice Milesi who is also a racing driver. Career Early career After success in karting, Milesi's driving career began in 2017 in Formula Renault. For two years, he ...

joined the No. 36 crew. In LMGT3, Giorgio Roda joined the No. 88

Proton Competition Proton Competition (also known as Team Felbermayr-Proton) is a German auto racing team founded by Gerold Ried. The team is based in Ummendorf, Baden-Württemberg. They currently operate a Porsche 911 RSR sports car in the FIA World Endurance ...

team for the first time since

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...

. Giammarco Levorato replaced

Mikkel O. Pedersen Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen (born 26 January 1997) is a Danish racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Dempsey- Proton Racing. Career Early career Born in Struer, Denmark, Pedersen's racing career began in karting ...

in the same car. Furthermore,

Franck Perera Franck Perera (born 21 March 1984 in Montpellier, France) is a race car driver who has competed in a number of international open-wheel racing championships. Career In 2006, Perera drove in the GP2 Series for the DAMS team, after four years of ...

was replaced by

Matteo Cairoli Matteo Cairoli (born 1 June 1996) is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career Junior formula Cairoli began his single-seater racing career in 2012, competing in the Italian Formula Renault C ...

in the No. 60

Iron Lynx Iron Lynx Motorsport Lab is an Italian auto racing team founded by Andrea Piccini, Deborah Mayer, Claudio Schiavoni and Sergio Pianezzola. The team is based in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna. They currently operate Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 spor ...

entry. Finally,

Conrad Laursen Conrad Nicholai Weis Laursen (born 11 May 2006) is a Danish racing driver scheduled to compete in the European Le Mans Series with AF Corse. He is the 2020 Danish F4 champion. Early career Lower formulae 2020 In 2020, Laursen made his ...

replaced

Clemens Schmid Clemens is both a Late Latin masculine given name and a surname meaning "merciful". Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adelaide Clemens (born 1989), Australian actress. * Andrew Clemens (b. 1852 or 1857–1894), American folk artist * ...

in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team entry.

Schedule

Practice

Three practice sessions were held before the event: two were held on Thursday, and one was held on Friday. The sessions on Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon lasted 90 minutes, and the session on Fruday morning lasted 60 minutes.

Practice 1

The first practice session started at 12:15 AST on Thursday.

Paul di Resta Paul di Resta (born 16 April 1986) is a British racing driver from Scotland, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Peugeot Sport in their LMH entry. He drove in Formula One for Force India from to , and became a reserve drive ...

topped the session in the No. 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies entry, with a lap time of 1:50.837.

Frédéric Makowiecki Frédéric Makowiecki (born 22 November 1980) is a French professional racing driver, currently competing as a factory driver for Porsche Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class. Career After competing in karting, Arra ...

's No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport car was second-quickest, 0.049 seconds behind Di Resta. The No. 51 Ferrari

AF Corse AF Corse is an Italian auto racing team founded by former racing driver Amato Ferrari in 1995 in Piacenza. Strongly linked to the Maserati and Ferrari brands, AF Corse currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Cha ...

entry of

Antonio Giovinazzi Antonio Maria Giovinazzi (; born 14 December 1993) is an Italian racing driver who currently serves as the reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo Racing. He was the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship runner-up and rac ...

was third-quickest, 0.204 seconds behind Di Resta.

Jean-Éric Vergne Jean-Éric Vergne (born 25 April 1990), also known as JEV, is a French racing driver who competes in the FIA Formula E Championship with Dragon Racing. He became the 2017–18 ABB Formula E Champion, after clinching fifth in the New York ePrix ...

and

Laurens Vanthoor Laurens Vanthoor (; born 8 May 1991) is a Belgian professional racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He currently resides in Waiblingen outside of Stuttgart. ...

rounded out the top five in the No. 93 Peugeot and No. 6 Porsche, respectively.

Kelvin van der Linde Kelvin van der Linde (born 20 June 1996) is a South African racing driver currently competing as a substitute driver in Formula E with the ABT Team. He made his GT Masters debut in 2014, also winning the championship that year, a feat he repea ...

led LMGT3 in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team entry, with a lap time of 2 minutes, 2.079 seconds.

Alessio Rovera Alessio Rovera (born 22 June 1995) is an Italian racing driver. Career Early career After starting out in Italian junior racing formulas, Rovera entered the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2014 and competed there for Cram Motorsport. With 65 champi ...

slotted in in second in the No. 55 Vista AF Corse entry, 0.263 seconds behind Van der Linde.

rounded out the top three in the No. 60

entry, 0.739 seconds behind Van der Linde. * Note: Only the fastest car in each class is shown.

Practice 2

The second practice session started at 17:30 AST on Thursday, and saw

Dries Vanthoor Dries Vanthoor (born 20 April 1998 in Heusden-Zolder) is a racing driver from Belgium. He currently competes in the GT World Challenge Europe and ADAC GT Masters for Audi. He is the younger brother of Laurens, and was the winner of the 2018 Ba ...

lead the session in the No. 15 BMW M Team WRT entry, with a lap time of 1:48.257. He was 0.054 seconds quicker than Matt Campbell in the No. 5 Porsche, with Giovinazzi in the No. 51 Ferrari once again taking the third position, 0.215 seconds behind Vanthoor.

Esteban Masson Esteban Masson (born 18 September 2004) is a Canadian-French racing driver who is the 2021 French F4 champion and currently drives for Campos Racing in the 2023 Eurocup-3 season. He previously competed in the Formula Regional European Champio ...

led the LMGT3 class in the No. 87 Lexus, with a lap time of 2:02.246. He was 0.655 seconds quicker than Hiroshi Koizumi in the No. 82

TF Sport TF Sport is a GT racing team that competes in blue-riband motorsport events throughout Europe including the FIA WEC Super Season and the 24 hours of Le Mans, headed by Tom Ferrier and supported by Aston Martin Racing. Overview Founded in 201 ...

entry, with François Hériau rounding out the top three in the No. 55 Ferrari. * Note: Only the fastest car in each class is shown.

Final practice

The third and final practice session started at 12:00 AST on Friday, which saw Vergne topping the time sheets in the No. 93 Peugeot with a lap time of 1:49.443. He was 0.219 seconds quicker than

Yifei Ye Yifei Ye (; born 16 June 2000) is a Chinese racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. He is the 2021 European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series champion and previously competed in single ...

in the No. 83

entry, with

Daniil Kvyat Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat ( rus, Дании́л Вячесла́вович Квят, p=dənʲɪˈil vʲɪtɕɪˈslavəvʲɪtɕ ˈkvʲat; born 26 April 1994) is a Russian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2014– ...

finishing third-quickest in the No. 63

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–199 ...

entry.

Alex Malykhin Aliaksandr Malykhin (; ; born 17 August 1987), also known as Alexander Malykhin or simply Alex Malykhin, is a Belarusian racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Manthey Pure Rxcing under a Kittitian rac ...

led the LMGT3 class in the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing entry, lapping the circuit in 2 minutes, 3.987 seconds. His lap was 0.054 seconds quicker than that of second-placed Arnold Robin in the No. 78 Lexus, with Hériau finishing third-quickest in the No. 55 Ferrari. * Note: Only the fastest car in each class is shown.

Qualifying

Qualifying results

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

winners in each class are marked in bold.

Race

Race results

The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of overall winning car's distance) was 164 laps. Class winners are in bold and .

Official recordings

* * *

References

{{WEC Rounds 8 Hours of Bahrain

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

8 Hours 8 Hours