GT: Decision days for Feller and Jani 🎥
TWO FINAL RUNS AND GP MEXICO For Neel Jani and Sébastien Buemi, it's all about the drivers' world championship titles on the endurance track in Bahrain, for Ricardo Feller it's about the German GT championship at the Nürburgring. Meanwhile, Formula 1 races in Mexico.
Some of the best moments of the first Bahrain race in 60 seconds.
After Toyota not unexpectedly secured the world championship title in the hypercar class a week ago, the second endurance race in eight days in Bahrain will be about the drivers' crown. Sébastien Buemi and his two team partners actually only have theoretical chances of winning the title.
Buemi must hope for support
Due to the increased race duration from six to eight hours, 50 percent more points than usual will be distributed. The winners therefore receive 38 points, the runners-up 27 and the third 23. With a 16-point gap to their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, who were victorious at Le Mans and a week ago at the 6-hour race in the Kingdom, and who will also start from pole position at the finale, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley can therefore no longer become world champions by their own efforts.
In the event of a victory, the Vaudois, who turned 33 on October 31, can only hope for bad luck on the part of the second Toyota pairing or a brilliant performance by Alpine, i.e. a second-place finish by the French. For Nakajima, it is also his farewell race in the FIA WEC.
Jani-Porsche must finish ahead of Ferrari
Neel Jani's starting position is better. With their third win of the season in the Porsche 911 RSR, the Swiss and his French partner Kevin Estre, also with the help of their second-placed factory colleagues Bruni/Lietz, moved to within one point of the leaders Alessandro Pier Guido and James Calado in the better of the two Ferrari 488s from AF Corse. With his best qualifying time on Friday, Estre then ensured a tie in the standings thanks to the extra point - it doesn't get more exciting than that!
Jani's calculation is simple: They have to finish ahead of the Italian car, no matter how, to become world champion in the GT class. As simple as it sounds, the task in the final race will be difficult, as the Italians with their strong two-car team will also leave no stone unturned and also start from row 1. It would be the second world championship title for the Biel native with Porsche after 2016 with the 919 Hybrid and the first in the GT category at the first attempt.
13 drivers with GT title chances
On Saturday and Sunday, it's also down to the wire for another Swiss in GT racing. Ricardo Feller and Germany's Christopher Mies lead the German GT Championship aka ADAC GT Masters by four points ahead of the final two sprint races at the Nürburgring.
With 56 points still to be awarded, mathematically there are still 13 drivers (see Table before final) are in the running for the title. With Raffaele Marciello from Ticino on a Mercedes-AMG and Rolf Ineichen from Lucerne on a Lamborghini, who recently won at Hockenheim, two other Swiss drivers are among them alongside Feller, although they will have to hope for a super weekend of their own and bad luck on the part of the opponents in front of them.
Ricardo Feller needs warm tires and racing luck
After a good second half of the season so far with the Audi R8 LMS, which has always been optimally prepared by Land Motorsport, the 21-year-old from Aargau traveled to the cold Eifel on Wednesday evening with confidence.
Ricardo Feller: "Of course, before such a decisive weekend, you're tense in a different way than before normal races. But nothing else is different. The team has done a mega job so far, everything has worked, so we're doing everything as we have so far. We just need the necessary race luck."
The only unpredictable factors are the fighting fury of the opponents and the weather on the final weekend. Both can throw a spanner in the works of all the title favorites. Another decisive factor will be which teams are best able to bring the Pirelli standard tires of their different cars up to temperature in order to stay within the good working window. Mercedes and Porsche often had an advantage in this respect.
Live on TV and Internet
Both title decisions can be seen on TV and the Internet this weekend. The Bahrain 8 Hours will be broadcast on Saturday from 11:40 a.m. to around 8:40 p.m. on RTL+, the free live stream from RTL Deutschland (formerly TVNOW).
The last three hours of the race will be televised on NITRO. Before that, the TV station, which is also free to air in Switzerland, will report from 2:30 p.m. on the first day of racing at the Nürburgring and from 3 p.m. on Sunday on the title decision.
Hofor Racing swears by revenge
Qualifying and the race are also available online via livestream on RTL+, on adac.de/motorsport and with YouTube also all the action in the ADAC GT4 Germany. Here, Italian Gabriele Piana, who lives in Ticino, and German Michael Schrey in the BMW M4 GT4 owned by Michael Kroll from Aargau and Hofor Racing, respectively, are leading.
After losing the title at the green table last year, the duo still has a score to settle. The lead is 21 points, with 50 still up for grabs. NITRO will bring you the highlights of the GT4 races on Sunday from 5 p.m. onwards.
Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport will no longer be satisfied.
Formula 1 title duel in Mexico
Not even a preliminary decision is to be expected in Formula 1, on the other hand. The Mexican Grand Prix is only the fifth-last race of the season. At the most, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton's race at the 2200-meter high GP circuit could result in a repeated change at the top of the standings - that alone is worth tuning in for.
SRF zwei will report from qualifying on Saturday from 8:55 p.m. to 10:10 p.m. and will broadcast the race on Sunday from 7:50 p.m. to 10 p.m.. Commentators from the Zurich studio are Michael Weinmann and Marc Surer.
