WEC Bahrain 8 Hours: #8 Toyota stays on top in second practice

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

Following its pre-race Balance of Performance boost, Ferrari topped the GTE Pro class for the first time across the two Bahrain rounds this year, with Daniel Serra setting the quickest time in the #52 488 GTE.

Serra’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 Aston Martin Vantage GTE ended up a disappointing seventh in the hands of gentleman driver Ben Keating, albeit still two places ahead of the only other Aston 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 TF-run D’station Aston.

WEC 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
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