The No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R took to the 8 Hours of Bahrain with high hopes after leading practice, but things quickly went south for Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook, as the trio could never recover from an early race penalty incurred in the first turn of the first lap.
Bamber, who had control of the No. 2 V-Series.R for the first stint of the race after the green flag dropped, locked up his brakes heading into Turn 1, piling into the rear bumper of the No. 7 Toyota, then driven by Mike Conway. Forced to gather the race car back up after the contact, Bamber was penalized for the incident, which sent Conway spinning. The No. 2 V-Series.R was called to serve a 60-second stop-and-go-penalty, putting the Caddy team well off the pace and miring them deep in the pack.
At the four-hour mark – halfway through the event – the No. 2 Cadillac Racing machine was running in 11th place under Lynn’s control once again, two laps down after serving an early race penalty. The controls were swapped back to Westbrook, who could not gain any position and continued to run 11th, though he was able to lay down some fast laps as he eyed the final two hours of the race.
That was where the No. 2 V-Series.R team would stay, ultimately crossing the line in 11th, as the race car just didn’t have the speed to make up for the contact with the Toyota and the ensuing penalty.
Overall, the Cadillac Racing team secured a fifth-place result in the 2023 FIA WEC Hypercar class, outperformed by two Toyotas and two Ferraris respectively.
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