Action packed race weekend

Rene Binder, Julien Falchero, Rinus van Kalmthout and Tom Oliphant were all victorious in their respective championships on the final day of race

action held in support of the FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC). 

The scene in Sakhir was intense and hotly-contested in the three supporting series, including the World Series Formula V8 3.5, the MRF Challenge and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.

The World Series Formula V8 3.5 staged the final round of its 2017 campaign on Saturday and starting from pole, Rene Binder did well to hold on to his lead until the chequered flag, despite the tough challenge of newly-crowned world champion and race one winner, Pietro Fittipaldi, who finished 2.542 seconds behind.

Rookie Tatiana Calderon claimed third 13.573s back, and they completed the podium for the last time this season.

With his earlier title-winning performance, Fittipaldi, who is the grandson of two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, later took the chance to test the 919 Hybrid of WEC champions, Porsche.

French GP3 driver Julien Falchero won his first race of the MRF Challenge in Bahrain when he got past Rinus van Kalmthout in the final race of round one.

van Kalmthout had earlier dominated race three, winning ahead of championship leader Felipe Drugovich and Falchero.

In the opening race of the day, van Kalmthout made the perfect getaway to lead into the first corner with Drugovich holding off Falchero. Behind them Alex Karkosik managed to pass Dylan Young as Martono lost places. van Kalmthout pulled away with Drugovich and Falchero locked in battle. He was not troubled and crossed the finish line more than eight seconds ahead. Falchero came alongside Drugovich but was unable to pass the Brazilian and had to settle for third.

The final race of the weekend once again saw van Kalmthout having the perfect start, with Falchero slotting into second ahead of Drugovich. Drugovich passed Falchero only to be repassed by the Frenchman.

The Safety Car was called out when Young hit Enqvist in the first corner. At the restart, Falchero passed van Kalmthout with a great move into the first corner. On lap four, Martono passed Drugovich for third place and closed in on the leaders.

Harri Jones and Michael Amendola collided on lap seven, which brought out the Safety Car for the second time. Van Kalmthout tried to get past Falchero at the restart only for Martono to get past in the first corner. Van Kalmthout fought back and maneuvered past Martono at turn four but Falchero held on to record his maiden victory.

TOM Oliphant clinched a fine victory in race two of the season-opening round of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.

The Briton snatched away the lead from pole-sitter Zaid Ashkanani and did well to hold on until the chequered flag. Oliphant triumphed just 0.527 seconds ahead of Ashkanani, who was 1.636s in front of third-place Al Faisal Al Zubair.

Each of the top three overall were also the leaders in the Gold class.

Team Bahrain’s Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa was the winner in the Silver category. He finished the race sixth overall 13.252s behind the victor. Khalid Al Wahaibi clinched first place in the Bronze class. He finished 22.612s off the winner’s pace. Team Bahrain’s other driver, Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, was the Bronze category’s runner-up. He completed the race 33.697s behind Oliphant.

On Sunday the BIC hosted the FIA WEC Rookie Test. A dozen cars took part in the five available hours of track time. Amongst the drivers testing alongside Fittipaldi were Thomas Laurent and Mike Conway in the LMP1 category, Mahaveer Reghunathan, Konstantin Tereshchenko and Gabriel Aubry in the LMP2 class and Ishikawa Motoaki, Olivier Beretta, Richard Lietz, Frederic Makowiecki, Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre in the LMGTE Pro and F1’s Alonso.