Bahrain WEC: Kobayashi puts #7 Toyota on top in FP2
Kamui Kobayashi led a 1-2 for Toyota in second practice for the penultimate round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season in Bahrain.
After Sebastien Buemi topped the timesheets in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid on Thursday, Kobayashi struck back in FP2 on Friday morning to put the points-leading #7 car ahead of its main championship rival with a time of 1m49.063s.
The Japanese driver was quick out of the gates at the 5.4km circuit, clocking the fastest time of the weekend so far on his first flying lap at the beginning of the 90-minute session.
The #8 Toyota ended up only 0.030s behind the sister car, courtesy of a 1m49.093s flyer set by Buemi’s teammate Brendon Hartley early on.
However, both these times were still seven second slower than what Toyota managed in the corresponding session in Bahrain last year, when the TS050 Hybrid made its farewell appearance in the WEC.
Alpine was again unable to match the two Toyotas up front, with Matthieu Vaxiviere managing a best time of 1m50.194s in the #36 A480-Gibson.
The gap between the lead Toyota and the sole Alpine doubled to 1.131s in FP2 after Nicolas Lapierre finished just over half a second behind Buemi in Thursday’s opening practice.
However, Toyota didn't exactly have a smooth session, with Buemi colliding with the #85 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy at Turn 1 in the final 30 minutes, bringing out the sole red flag of the session.
Crash of #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In LMP2, Tom Blomqvist put the points-leading #28 JOTA Oreca on top with a time of 1m50.199s, leading the #22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque by a massive eight tenths of a second.
The #31 Team WRT Oreca was third in the hands of Charles Milesi, while ARC Bratislava was classified fourth - and the best among the Pro-Am entrants - courtesy of Oliver Webb’s time of 1m51.382s in the #44 Oreca.
Porsche maintained its lead over Ferrari in the GTE Pro division, with Kevin Estre clocking the quickest time in the #92 911 RSR-19.
Estre’s lap of 1m56.411s was just over two tenths faster than what Gianmaria Bruni managed in the sister #91 Porsche and nearly three seconds up on the lead Ferrari, the #51 AF Corse 488 GTE driven by James Calado.
Miguel Molina was last of the class runners in the #52 Ferrari.
The two AF Corse-run Ferrari GTE Pro entries have received a major Balance of Performance hit for the final two rounds of the season in Bahrain, robbing the car of 25bhp in comparison with the Monza race in July. The Italian marque claims these changes were made outside of the WEC’s auto BoP system, which applies to every round except the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Team Project 1 led the way in GTE Am courtesy of Matteo Cairoli’s time of 1m58.015s in the #56 Porsche.
The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage finished second with Felipe Fraga at the wheel, while the top three was rounded by the Dempsey Proton team - with Matt Campbell setting the quickest time aboard the #77 Porsche.
The qualifying for WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more information.
Practice results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'49.063 | |
| 2 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'49.093 | 0.030 |
| 3 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'50.194 | 1.131 |
| 4 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.199 | 1.136 |
| 5 | 22 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.979 | 1.916 |
| 6 | 31 |  Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.075 | 2.012 |
| 7 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Oliver Webb  Kush Maini | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.382 | 2.319 |
| 8 | 20 |  Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach  Robert Kubica | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.493 | 2.430 |
| 9 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.595 | 2.532 |
| 10 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.160 | 3.097 |
| 11 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.538 | 4.475 |
| 12 | 1 |  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser Gabriel Aubry | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.919 | 4.856 |
| 13 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.308 | 5.245 |
| 14 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.411 | 7.348 |
| 15 | 29 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'56.543 | 7.480 |
| 16 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.658 | 7.595 |
| 17 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'58.015 | 8.952 |
| 18 | 33 |  Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.919 | 9.856 |
| 19 | 77 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.020 | 9.957 |
| 20 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.317 | 10.254 |
| 21 | 52 | Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.486 | 10.423 |
| 22 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.970 | 10.907 |
| 23 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.164 | 11.101 |
| 24 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.392 | 11.329 |
| 25 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.509 | 11.446 |
| 26 | 88 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi Adrien de Leener Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.617 | 11.554 |
| 27 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.631 | 11.568 |
| 28 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.907 | 11.844 |
| 29 | 60 | Rino Mastronardi Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.017 | 11.954 |
| 30 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.187 | 12.124 |
| 31 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.248 | 12.185 |
| View full results | ||||||
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