Alessandro Pier Guidi completed the final stages of the Bahrain WEC finale in fifth gear to clinch Ferrari the GTE Pro title - and teammate James Calado was '95% sure we weren’t going to finish.'
Pier Guidi revealed after the race in which he and his teammate claimed their third WEC crown together with fifth position that he opted not to change gear in the closing stages in an attempt to nurse their AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to the chequered flag.
“When I got back in the car, I tried to just skip fourth gear, so first, second and third and then with the clutch I got fifth and sixth,” said Pier Guidi. “But on the straights when I was in fifth and sixth, I saw that the temperature was dropping a degree or two, so I thought, OK, I will use fifth for the whole lap.”
The #51 Ferrari crew, who went into the Bahrain 8 Hours with an 11-point championship lead, needed to finish the race as the fifth highest-placed GTE car.
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