GERMANS David Schumacher and Leon Koehler both claimed fine victories yesterday evening at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir to end the second action-packed day of this weekend’s events in the FIA WEC Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Schumacher won race two in the MRF Challenge while Koehler triumphed in the second race of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East.
Schumacher left it late in his win. He started from fifth on the grid and was only able to move into the lead on the final lap to take the chequered flag in dramatic fashion.
He had a winning time of 20 minutes 24.266 seconds over 10 laps.
Podium
Schumacher finished 1.702 seconds ahead of race one winner Bent Viscaal while Dylan Young took the other podium step after going 1.728s off the pace.
Josh Mason of Great Britain was fourth, Reece Ushijima of Japan fifth and Valdemar Eriksen of Denmark sixth.
In the second Porsche race, Koehler won from pole-to-flag as he made up for missing the victory in Friday’s first sprint held earlier in the day.
Koehler triumphed with a comfortable 7.784-second gap from runner-up Saul Hack, while Berkay Besler was third 8.068s back.
All three were top in both the overall classification and in the Pro class.
The ProAm category was clinched by Jesse Van Kuijk from the Netherlands ahead of Team Bahrain’s Shaikh Ali Al Khalifa, while Team Bahrain’s other participant Shaikh Jabar Al Khalifa won the Am class.
Earlier, Bent Viscaal clinched victory in the first race of the MRF Challenge in 23:52.460.
Pole-sitter Schumacher finished runner-up while Valdemar Eriksen of Denmark claimed the final podium place 6.548s behind.
Meanwhile, Julian Hanses from Germany won the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East.
Hanses won the season-opening 12-lap event ahead of pole-sitter Koehler by just 0.004 seconds, while third-placer Berkay Besler was just 0.293s behind.