Toyota claimed its fifth victory of the season, while Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi clinched the 2014 FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship following an action-packed Six Hours of Bahrain.
Alex Wurz brought the No. 7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid to the win Saturday evening, edging out the pair of Porsche 919 Hybrids, which had its strongest race to date with its first double-podium finish of the season.
Wurz and co-drivers Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway led from the second hour, following alternator problems for the sister No. 8 car of Davidson and Buemi, which lost more than 30 minutes in the garage.
However, with their 11th-place finish overall, and championship-contending No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler finishing fourth, it sealed up the drivers’ title one race early.
Despite another win for Toyota, the Manufacturer’s World Championship will come down to the wire at the season-ender in Sao Paulo in two weeks’ time, with the Japanese automaker holding a 40-point lead over Audi.
While Sarrazin claimed back-to-back wins in Bahrain, it marked Conway’s first for Toyota in only his second race start. Along with Wurz, it was all three drivers first wins of the season.
The No. 14 Porsche of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb finished second, with Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard coming home third.
Webber gambled on double-stinting tires during his final stop in a bid to overhaul the race-leading No. 7 Toyota, but faded the in the late stages, which saw Jani get around the F1 ace with 20 minutes to go.

Come race with us: Webber urges Button to leave F1 for FIA WEC

The pair of Audis completed the top five following an uneventful race for the turbo diesels, following three tub changes over the week that had the mechanics working overtime.
LMP1-L class honors went to the No. 13 Rebellion R-One Toyota of Fabio Leimer Andrea Belicchi and Dominik Kraihamer for the second time this season.