The second Free Practice session of the opening day of the 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend was held under the floodlights surrounding the 5.4km Bahrain track and after 90-minutes the no2 Porsche was still the fastest car on the first day with Neel Jani lowering the fastest time he set in Free Practice 1 by 2.2 seconds to 1m39.817, very close to last year’s pole position time of 1m39.736 and well inside Jani’s own lap record of 1m41.893.

The no1 919 made it a Porsche 1-2 at the end of the day with Brendon Hartley’s best time of 1m40.272 was 0.455 seconds slower than his Swiss teammate.  The no8 Audi and the no6 Toyota were 3rd and 4th fastest respectively.

The LMP2 class was headed by the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca with Rene Rast setting a 1m50.096, 0.9 seconds quicker than the best lap in FP1.  The no36 Signatech Alpine was second fastest, with Gustavo Menezes posting a 1m50.444 lap, 0.6 seconds ahead of the no44 and no45 Manor Orecas with Alex Lynn posting the best time in the no44 car, 0.1 ahead of teammate Roberto Mehri.

In LMGTE Pro Aston Martin Racing were once again 1-2 but this time it was the no95 Vantage of Marco Sorensen heading the no97 car of Darren Turner.  The Danish drivers best lap was a 1m57.226, 1.5 seconds fastest than Turner’s best time in FP1, the British driver  lowering his lap time in FP2 to 1m57.233, aptly 0.007 seconds slower given Aston Martin’s links to the fictional master spy James Bond.

The no67 Ford GT of Andy Priaulx was third fastest, 1.9 seconds behind the fastest Aston Martin, with Sam Bird posting the best time of the session in the no71 AF Corse Ferrari to claim 4th.

In  LMGTE Am the honours also went to Aston Martin Racing with Pedro Lamy being the only driver to post a sub two minute lap time in the no98 Vantage.  The Portuguese drivers lap of 1m59.460 was 1.119 seconds ahead of the no51 Larbre Competition Corvette of Ricky Taylor in second place, with Emmanuel Collard 2.090 seconds behind Lamy with the third fastest time.

The third and final Free Practice session of the 6 Hours of Bahrain, indeed the final practice of the 2016 season, will take place at 11h30 (local) tomorrow morning, Friday 18 November.