Anthony Davidson in the no8 Toyota TS030 continued to circulate the Bahrain International Circuit and at the end of the third quarter held a comfortable 1-lap lead over the no1 Audi R18 of Andre Lotterer, who had been penalised with a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags earlier in the race.

With the demise of three LMP1 contenders the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca-Nissan of Roman Rusinov was lying in 3rd overall at the end of the first 270 minutes and was leading LMP2 by 21 seconds ahead of the no49 Pecom Racing Oreca of Pierre Kaffer. The no41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan of Wolfgang Reip had to make an unscheduled stop to clear some debris from the airbox and this dropped the Belgian driver down the order and promoted the no24 Oak Racing Morgan into 3rd place.

Ferrari Hold Upper Hand in LMGTE Pro

As the clock turned over for the fourth hour of the 6 Hours of Bahrain the drama transferred from the LMP class to the LMGTE Pro category.  The No.71 AF Corse Ferrari of Kamui Kobayashi and Giancarlo Fisichella – which had been holding second place behind its sister No.51 car – came into the pits for a regular pit stop but was delayed by a problem with the right front wheel hub which dropped it back to 5th in class.  In the meantime, the Bruni-Vilander car has continued to circulate faultlessly and holds a lead of 44 seconds over the No.91 Porsche AG Team Manthey of Patrick Pilet and Joerg Bergmeister.

Now up to third in class is the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage of Senna-Lamy-Stanaway, and a strong finish for that car would go some way to make up for the immense disappointment suffered by the LMGTE Pro points leaders Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke.   The No.97 Aston reported engine problems at the 3h46 mark into the race while the German was behind the wheel and, after further investigation in the pits, the car was retired.

Also suffering from huge disappointment, but still running in the race, is the No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche of Vernay-Narac-Palttala.  The LMGTE Am Drivers title contenders had to pit just as the fifth hour of the race started for a suspension problem and lost 20-minutes.  They are back on track but 11 laps in arrears to their competitors.  

Leading the GTE Am class is long-time leader, the No.95 Aston Martin Vantage, ahead of the Ferrari duo of 8Star Motorsport’s No.81 and the AF Corse’s No.61.  The No.88 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried, Paulo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda has retired from the final round of the 2013 FIA WEC with a rear axle issue.