Sakhir, Bahrain: The spectacular Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar concluded its debut season of global competition with a second-straight points finish, at the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, on Saturday, after leading a round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) for the first time.
The seventh-place result for Aston Martin THOR Team’s #009 entry, driven by three-time WEC GT champion Marco Sørensen (DEN), Alex Riberas (ESP) and Roman De Angelis (CDN), added to the fifth-place finish the team had taken last-time out in Japan on a weekend of notable landmarks for the unique 6.5-litre, V12-powered British hypercar.
A magnificent performance in Hypercar qualifying was the highlight of Saturday’s on-track action as the #007 entry of British trio Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn led the #009 in an all-Valkyrie one-two; ensuring that both Aston Martin THOR Team cars would progress to the Hyperpole session and challenge for pole position for the first time. Sixth and ninth positions on the grid marked the first time two Valkyries had qualified inside the top 10 in the WEC.
Aston Martin’s first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) showed more potential during the eight-hour race as, following a mid-race safety car period that bunched the field, Riberas charged from fifth place into the lead – the first time Valkyrie has headed a WEC race. It was a fitting end to a trail-blazing debut season that featured the car’s maiden podium finish in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in October’s gruelling Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Valkyrie is the first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin. Raced by the works Aston Martin THOR Team, it is the only car in WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar and made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February. This unique, ambitious and trail-blazing programme has grown in competitiveness at every turn through a grueling season that has covered more than 22,000 racing miles, and eight rounds of WEC (including the 24 Hours of Le Mans) for the two stunning, green Aston Martins.
“The aim for Aston Martin in Hypercar in 2025 was to compete in endurance racing at the very highest level of competition, both globally in WEC and in North America in IMSA,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport. “Both are magnificent series with manufacturers, teams and drivers that have been at the pinnacle of the sport for, in some cases, decades. To have brought such a unique car as Valkyrie to the stage, to start where we did, and to consistently improve our performances to the point where we’ve come to the WEC finale in Bahrain and perform the way we have, shows the ability and desire of everybody that is a part of this programme. We have made satisfying progress in 2025 and will continue to build on this next season.”
Developed from the Valkyrie production car, the competition version blends a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 powerplant that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.