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Toyota Wins Fourth Straight FIA World Endurance Championship Title

fia world endurance championship 8 hours of bahrain
Toyota Wins Fourth Straight FIA WEC TitleJames Moy Photography - Getty Images

For the fourth straight season, Toyota's prototype program are FIA World Endurance Champions. The team clinched the honor with a win in today's 8 hour WEC season finale at at Bahrain.

While Toyota had no real competition from any other manufacturer for the full season, Alpine did contest the season in a grandfathered-in Rebellion LMP1 car and that car was able to win two of six races. That lone Alpine had a shot at a championship with a win today, but Toyota's two GR010s finished the race two full laps ahead of the Rebellion-built car and clinched the championship with relative ease. Driver's honors go to the trio of Sebastian Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley, the same trio that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall earlier this season.

In LMP2, championship honors went to Jota Sport's trio of Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez, and Will Stevens in the team's final year as an LMP2-only team before moving up to Hypercar with a customer Porsche 963 next season. Ferrari and AF Corse drivers James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi take top honors in GTE-Pro, with that program also moving up to Hypercar next season as the factory outlet for Ferrari's 499P.

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Additional factory entries from Cadillac partners Chip Ganassi Racing and Porsche partners Team Penske will also join the 2023 Hypercar grid, while this season's part time Peugeot 9X8 operation will shift to full-time competition. If Toyota and its GR010 win a WEC title again next season, it will be a far greater achievement.

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