Bahrain 8h WEC: #8 Toyota stays on top in second practice
Brendon Hartley ensured the #8 Toyota remained quickest in second practice for the FIA World Endurance Championship title decider in Bahrain.
The two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner posted a time of 1m47.673s during a four-lap stint at the beginning of the 90-minute session, beating the sister #7 GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi by just over half a second.
Hartley’s quickest time was eight tenths quicker than the lap with which he topped FP1 on Thursday evening, but some way off his pole time in the Bahrain 6 Hours event last week.
The two Toyota crews are separated by 15 points going into the race, with Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway primed to defend their 2019/20 title in the #7 car.
Signatech Alpine was again unable to challenge the Japanese manufacturer on one lap pace, with Matthieu Vaxiviere managing a best time of 1m49.056s in the team’s sole A480-Gibson.
Ex-Formula 1 driver Giedo van der Garde set the pace in the LMP2 class, lapping the Bahrain International Circuit in 1m50.513s in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
Filipe Albuquerque finished just 0.046s adrift in the #22 United Autosports entry, while the points-leading WRT team rounded out the top three with Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel of its #31 Oreca.
Both JOTA cars finished some way off the pace in FP2 as they focused on long run pace, with Stoffel Vandoorne the team’s best representative in eighth in the #28 entry.
Ferrari leads Porsche in GTE Pro
#52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Daniel Serra, Miguel Molina
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ferrari topped the GTE Pro class for the first time across the two Bahrain rounds this year, with Miguel Molina setting the quickest time in the #52 488 GTE.
Molina’s lap of 1m57.509s put him four tenths clear of Frederic Makowiecki in the best of the Porsches, although the two 911 RSR-19s were not lapping at the same pace as first practice on Thursday.
Kevin Estre was third in the #92 Porsche, while the four-car GTE Pro order was propped up by James Calado in the points-leading #51 Ferrari.
Porsche did enjoy an advantage over Ferrari in the GTE Am ranks, however, with factory driver Matt Campbell topping the times in the #77 Dempsey-Proton entry.
Cetilar Racing was the top Ferrari team in second, with Antonio Fuoco ending up just over two tenths behind Campbell in the #47 488 GTE.
Andrea Piccini was third in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari, while the points-leading TF Sport ended up a disappointing seventh in the hands of gentleman driver Ben Keating, albeit still two places ahead of the only other Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the field.
The session was interrupted by a single full course yellow, caused by Satoshi Hoshino stopping between Turns 2 and 3 in the #777 D’station Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Bahrain 8 Hours - FP2 results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'47.673 | |
| 2 | 7 |  Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'48.200 | 0.527 |
| 3 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.056 | 1.383 |
| 4 | 29 |  Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.513 | 2.840 |
| 5 | 22 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.559 | 2.886 |
| 6 | 31 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.190 | 3.517 |
| 7 | 34 |  Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.314 | 3.641 |
| 8 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.477 | 4.804 |
| 9 | 1 |  Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.838 | 5.165 |
| 10 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.856 | 5.183 |
| 11 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.183 | 5.510 |
| 12 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.262 | 5.589 |
| 13 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.635 | 5.962 |
| 14 | 20 |  Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.340 | 6.667 |
| 15 | 52 | Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.509 | 9.836 |
| 16 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.924 | 10.251 |
| 17 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.043 | 10.370 |
| 18 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.043 | 10.370 |
| 19 | 77 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'58.489 | 10.816 |
| 20 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.716 | 11.043 |
| 21 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.753 | 11.080 |
| 22 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.344 | 11.671 |
| 23 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.430 | 11.757 |
| 24 | 88 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi  Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.534 | 11.861 |
| 25 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.576 | 11.903 |
| 26 | 33 |  Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.622 | 11.949 |
| 27 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.626 | 11.953 |
| 28 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.662 | 11.989 |
| 29 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.913 | 12.240 |
| 30 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.947 | 12.274 |
| 31 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.363 | 12.690 |
| View full results | ||||||
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