WEC – Kobayashi Sets Fastest Time of First Weekend in Bahrain in FP2
The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar set the pace in the second 90-minute free practice session for round 5 of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, this morning. Porsche once again placed 1-2 in LMGTE Pro, while the championship #28 JOTA takes top position in LMP2 and Matteo Cairoli again stars in LMGTE Am in the #56 Project 1 Porsche.
Hypercar
The #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing run Toyota GR010 Hybrid emerged as the fastest car with Kamui Kobayashi lapping in 1m49.063s, 1.5s faster than Sebastien Buemi’s FP1 best yesterday.
The #8 Toyota completed another 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer as Brendon Hartley laps just 0.030s adrift of Kobayashi
There was a brief pause when the session was red flagged with 20-minutes remaining after clash between Sebastien Buemi and #85 iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy. The incident occurred as Toyota left pits and contact was made at T1. Buemi suffered two punctures and suspected suspension damage.
The #36 Alpine ELF Matmut entry driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao places third, with a 1m50.194s best by Vaxiviere.
LMGTE Pro
The #92 Porsche GT Team entry was fastest in LMGTE Pro as Kevin Estre posted a 1m56.411s lap in his 911 RSR-19.
Porsche was once again 1-2 in category as #91 lapped a mere 0.24s away from sister car. Gimmi Bruni peaks on a 1m56.658s best as German manufacturer still enjoys pace advantage over Ferrari rivals.
AF Corse Ferrari third and fourth again as they adjust to boost reduction for this race. The #51 Ferrari heads #71 488 GTE Evo as Prancing Horse looks to try and reduce substantial gap to rivals
LMP2
Tom Blomqvist claims the best time in LMP2 class for JOTA. British driver sets early session time of 1m50.199s to go a second quicker than FP1 best time from yesterday.
The Le Mans runners-up #28 Oreca-Gibson car leads United Autosports as Filipe Albuquerque places reigning champion car second but 0.8s behind JOTA’s best.
Team WRT were third in category as Le Mans winning trio of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi aim for back-to-back wins in WEC tomorrow
Norman Nato stops Real Team Racing LMP2 on track to trigger second full course yellow of session. First FCY deployed for debris on track.
LMGTE Am
Italian Matteo Cairoli once again sets a rapid pace to head the LMGTE Am class as his early session 1m58.015s lap slightly improves his best from Thursday.
The #56 Project 1 entry again leads class but this time from #33 TF Sport Aston Martin with a lap of 1m58.919s by Felipe Fraga sees the previous Porsche superiority split.
The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third as Matt Campbell sets 1m59.020s best lap