TF Sport claim exciting win in Bahrain to set up a final race thriller

Saturday, October 30, 2021

After claiming two second-place finishes, at the season opener in Spa and the WEC’s blue ribband event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the crew were hungry at take top-step honours.

Starting mid-pack, in sixth, after a tricky qualifying session, the #33 bronze driver Keating wasted no time in picking off the competition and over his two one-hour stints, climbed to the class lead.

After handing over to silver-graded Pereira, bad luck struck when a full course yellow period was called, giving an advantage to the Aston’s competitors and the #33 GTE fell to P3. However, it didn’t take long for Pereira to reclaim first in class and from there, he began to build a gap before the end of his run.

Fraga took the wheel for the final two hours, but it was by no-means easy, as his Porsche rivals found phenomenal pace towards the closing stages.

Nevertheless, Brazilian Fraga held his ground and crossed the line to take the win with a 5.5 second lead. This victory was not only the first for an Aston Martin in the 2021 season, but also saw Dylan Pereira become the first ever Luxembourgish driver to claim victory in the WEC.

TF Sport’s #33 entry remains second in the GTE AM Championship, but the points gap has reduced to 21.5 behind the #83 AF Corse Ferrari. With 39 points up for grabs next week, it’s all to play for at the last race of the season.

It was a tough battle for the D’station Racing crew. Despite the #777 Vantage getting into the lead of the race at the hands of Tomonobu Fujii, various issues including a drive-through penalty for a full course yellow infringement and a stop in the box for damage repairs, Fujii alongside Satoshi Hoshino and Andrew Watson maximised their potential, but had to settle for P11. The Japanese entry showed great pace and will be back next week to fight for a better result.