Pictures courtesy of Audi Motorsport
Scots driver, Allan McNish, is on course to make this year’s St Andrew’s Day one to remember when the Dumfries-born race ace challenges for his fourth win of the season in the Six Hours of Bahrain on Saturday. McNish is already assured of the FIA World Endurance Championship Driver’s title along with co-drivers Tom Kristensen (Den) and Loïc Duval (F) in the eight-race series that began with the trio steering their hybrid-diesel Audi to victory at Silverstone in April. Two other wins that included the Le Mans 24 Hours, three seconds and a third have earned the trio an unassailable points lead but McNish is nevertheless gunning for further success in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Allan McNish
“Four wins in a season sounds much better than three while it’s not often I get the chance of winning a race on St Andrew’s Day so it’s gloves off in Bahrain,” he said. “It’ll be no holds barred for everyone because there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain to sign off the year in spectacular fashion. Audi has won six out of seven WEC races this season but Toyota will be very keen to make amends for the close fight they lost in China. Tom, Loïc and I also want another win but it will be tough. In China we had to take a very cautious approach through traffic to make sure there were no mistakes and get our hands on the title.”
But confirmation of the Driver’s title for the trio will only come to fruition so long as each driver completes the 45min minimum driving time in the final round on Saturday. In last year’s corresponding race around the 3.91-mile Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, McNish claimed pole-position and went on to finish second behind the “sister” hybrid diesel Audi of outgoing WEC champions Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F).
Qualifying is staged on Friday with the eighth and final FIA WEC race scheduled to start at 12 noon (UK time) on Saturday.