Manthey 1st Phorm secures title glory, as Akkodis ASP Team holds on for a nail-biting victory in Bahrain…
Akkodis ASP Team secured its second win of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season in today’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, but only after a tense final few ten minutes during which the French-entered outfit came under serious pressure.
The #87 Lexus RC F of José María López, Clemens Schmid and Petru Umbrărescu ultimately held off the hard-charging #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG of Maxime Martin, Lin Hodenius and Martin Berry by just 0.7secs.
While Akkodis added victory in Bahrain to its maiden FIA WEC triumph in July’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo, a fourth-place finish was sufficient to confirm the Manthey 1st Phorm crew of Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera as both 2025 LMGT3 Drivers’ and Teams’ champions.
The result represented back-to-back LMGT3 class crowns for the decorated German squad, the foundations of which were built courtesy of a pair of early-season wins at Imola and Le Mans, in addition to five other points-scoring performances.
But it was the #87 Lexus that was in command for the majority of the race, with two-time world champion López enjoying a lead of approximately 13 seconds before a last-hour safety car intervention closed up the field.
Pera had been running in second place before handing over to now double FIA WEC title-winner Lietz for the final tense stint, as the Austrian driver was forced to relinquish positions to both the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage of Mattia Drudi and Martin’s Mercedes, shortly after the eight-hour contest went back to green flag running.
Drudi, who shares the #27 Aston Martin with Zacharie Robichon and Ian James, pushed through to launch a challenge on López for the lead, but he was unable to make a move stick and was himself usurped by Martin, with the runner-up spoils for the #61 marking the finest finish of a challenging campaign for Iron Lynx.
Fourth position was nonetheless enough for the Manthey 1st Phorm trio of Lietz, Hardwick and Pera to clinch the championship with a 14-point buffer over #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari crew Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Hériau, who took the chequered flag just behind in fifth.
As ever in LMGT3, battles raged throughout during the day-into-night encounter. One of the most entertaining involved #33 TF Sport Corvette driver Daniel Juncadella and Augusto Farfus in his #31 The Bend WRT BMW. The two traded several touches, but it was the Spaniard who won out by taking sixth position in the car he shares with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar.
While Akkodis celebrated on one hand, it commiserated on the other as the pole-sitting #78 Lexus piloted by Finn Gehrsitz, Ben Barnicoat and Arnold Robin was forced into the garage in the second hour with a technical problem. The win for the #87 sister car, however, elevated the Jérôme Policand-helmed team to third in both the Teams’ and Drivers’ standings.
Thomas Flohr emerged unscathed from a substantial accident in the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari after he was clipped by the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Hypercar when Jenson Button, in his final professional outing, misjudged an overtaking manoeuvre. The Briton was penalised for the incident, which triggered the first of two safety cars in the season finale.
Click HERE for the race results.
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