8 Hours of Bahrain - The Final Round of the WEC

On Saturday afternoon, the grand finale of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) roared into action. Notoriously low grip, high degradation and tough on the brakes, the 8 Hours of Bahrain is a true endurance challenge – and yesterday, the WEC curtain-closer lived up to its reputation. The McLaren LMGT3 duo battled through the baking heat and into the night with the #95 taking P9 after eight hours, 216 laps and nine pit stops, followed by the sister #59 in P16

James Cottingham took the start for the #59 crew, double stinting tyres to bank fresh rubber for the final throes. The Brit defended valiantly in the opening stages, but owing to the long-haul tyre strategy, ultimately lost positions and dropped to the back of the pack. Two hours in, Cottingham handed over to Sebastien Baud – however, the French driver soon encountered an issue. The team acted quickly, pulling the #59 into the box to replace the alternator, with Seb rejoining the race after 20 minutes of intense action.

Half an hour later, however, the same issue reared its head, with a second alternator failure forcing the #59 into the box once again - dropping the team 22 laps behind the LMGT3 leader. Gregoire Saucy took over for the final push, racing to the line and signing off the #59’s podium placing season with a hard-fought P16.

James Cottingham: “We adopted a very aggressive tyre strategy to give us a massive advantage towards the end of the race with more new tyres, which worked completely to our advantage with a full green race for the first two and half hours which meant we had used up a lot of Bronze and Silver drive time on a low consumption tyre strategy. We were looking really good but unfortunately disaster struck when we had an alternator issue meaning that we had to box and ultimately we lost too much time to make it back. A sad final chapter to an amazing two year adventure with United Autosports.”

Sebastien Baud: “So the season is done now. I am a bit disappointed because we had a good team, a good car and a good chance to fight for the podium at most of the races. But we had some technical issues along the way, and that was the same in Bahrain. Good memories in Qatar on the podium but overall a bit disappointed in the end.”

Gregoire Saucy: “Really difficult last race. It’s sad that we had some issues with the car. During my last three stints we showed we could fight with the others … we were not the fastest, but I could fight with them. Overall, it has been a season of ups and downs! I want to say a big thank you to all the team, all the engineers and the mechanics, for their hard work during the season.”