Mike Conway experienced a disappointing end to the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the 6 Hours of Bahrain.

Conway and his teammates, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi, began the race with an outside chance of claiming the drivers’ World Championship but a fifth-place finish was not enough to overhaul the Porsche #2 crew of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.

This result meant that the #6 TOYOTA crew finished the season a creditable third in the drivers’ standings, 15 points behind the eventual champions.

Conway and his team started Saturday’s race from the third row after having their fastest lap in qualifying deleted for exceeding track limits. The 33-year old driver was disappointed yet respectful of the steward’s decision.

“I had a really good lap and I got the maximum out of the car. It’s just a pity it got deleted; I thought it was okay but I respect the decision. I felt we had a chance to get on the front row but that’s life. We have good race pace so we can still get a strong result; we will keep pushing flat-out.”

When the race got under way, Kamui in the #6 fought hard with #7 Audi but could not stay ahead, instead he put pressure on from fifth with Sébastien just behind in the sister car.

The Porsche #2 suffered a puncture after almost one hour, elevating the #6 car to fifth as the sun set and darkness took hold at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The order stayed that way through the first half of the race, as track temperatures dropped slightly in the darkness. But after the halfway point, the two TS050 HYBRIDs swapped position several times, both in the pits and on track.

The #1 Porsche remained out of reach in third place despite consistent efforts from all TOYOTA drivers as the end of the race approached.

When the chequered flag fell, Mike followed 38.685secs later to complete a frustrating weekend.

“It was a tough day really. We thought it would be very close and we would be able to fight but Audi were so strong, it was impressive. Congratulations also to the Porsche #2 guys. Towards the end of the race it got really difficult with so much rubber stuck in the front of the car; I lost a lot of front grip. The team has plenty to be proud of this season so we will look back on the positives.”

This weekend’s race represented Audi’s final appearance in the championship. The Toyota team marked the occasion by displaying messages on both TS050 HYBRIDs and presenting a commemorative banner to the Head of Audi Motorsport, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich.

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk