Staying On The Podium, Sean Gelael Et Al Must Be Satisfied In The Second Position Of The 2021 LMP2 Endurance Race

Indonesian racer Sean Gelael (center) shows his trophy after completing the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) LMP2 class endurance race which closed in Bahrain, Sunday 7 November early in the morning. (Intermediate Photo)

JAKARTA - Sean Gelael, Britain's Tom Blomqvist and Belgium's Stoffel Vandoorne in the JOTA #28 team had to settle for second place in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) LMP2 endurance race which closed in Bahrain, early Sunday.

Based on data from the JOTA Team, Sean Gelael and his friends had to settle for finishing third in the closing race with the title 8 Hours of Bahrain. While in the final standings collected 131 points. For the top position, there is Team WRT #31 with 151 points and the third position is Team JOTA #38 with 123 points.

"My team and I have tried hard, but we have to admit that the opponent is indeed better in this race. Congratulations to WRT and I will try to do better next year," said Sean Gelael in his official statement as reported by Antara.

Until now, it is not known what race and team the 25-year-old Red-White racer will defend for next season. What is certain is that he admits that he really enjoys endurance racing, because it has proven to be very competitive in this event.

The final race series is expected to witness the birth of the LMP2 champion from Indonesia. The racer, who is supported by KFC Indonesia's Jagonya Chicken, Pertamina and BNI, still has a chance to become the champion because he is only five points away from the leader of the standings, WRT #31.

However, the long and exhausting race at the Sakhir Circuit has not been a sweet place for Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist, to be crowned champions.

With a target of finishing in front of WRT, they could even only finish in third position. WRT won as well as the title of champion. This Belgian debutant team has won the last three WEC races, namely the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 6 Hours of Bahrain and 8 Hours of Bahrain.

This result confirmed Sean Gelael and JOTA #28 as the second best driver and team of the season. Especially for Sean, of course this is an extraordinary achievement considering this is his first year participating in the WEC for a full season.

In general, he became the Indonesian racer with the best and highest achievement in the event recognized by the FIA. In addition, Sean ended the WEC with a great effort in the final race.

Starting from position 9, he immediately went up two positions. After that he overtook several riders, so that before he was replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne, JOTA #28 was already in P4.

Sean's great stunt was when he caught up with Philip Hanson driving the reigning champion, United Autosports USA #22. Not just once, even twice.

That can happen because after following the first Sean Gelael was involved in an incident at Turn 11 with the GTE drivers, which made his position slump. And it was during the recovery position that he caught up with Hanson again. After the reins shifted to Stoffel and Tom, JOTA #28 really struggled to match the pace of three WRT riders, Ferdinand Habsburg, Robin Frinjs and Charles Milesi.