6 Hours of Bahrain

6 Hours of Bahrain

Kamui Kobayashi leads with #7 Toyota in the 6 Hours of Bahrain FP2

Kevin Peterson05 mins

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 team-mate 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. 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.

6 Hours of Bahrain

Sebastien Buemi tops a Toyota 1-2 lead in the 6 Hours of Bahrain FP1

Kevin Peterson04 mins

In Free Practice 1 on Thursday, Toyota 1-2, Sebastien Buemi and Jose Maria Lopez lead the No. 8 and 7 GR010 hybrids, respectively, and are the only drivers to mark 1 minute 51 seconds on a hot afternoon. Buemi’s best was 1: 50.571, up 0.4 seconds in his sister car, and Nicolas Lapierre was the third fastest in the No. 36 Alpine A480 hypercar class, just one-tenth from Lopez. But Alpine wasn’t the third fastest overall. For Lapierre, Antonio Felix da Costa made the best pit in the No. 38 Jota ORECA 07 LMP2 car. It was 1 minute 51.083 seconds, 0.5 seconds behind Toyota’s best time, and 0.0015 seconds at Alpine. The second fastest LMP2 was in the hands of a Loic Duval pro, but the fastest of any professional amateur car. It was 0.129 off from Dacosta and 0.1 seconds off from Alpine. Sean Geleal, Giedo van der Garde and Filipe Albuquerque have completed the LMP2 Top 5 in the second (No. 28) Jota, No. 29 Racing Team Nederland and No. 22 United Autosports Orecas respectively. GTE posted the second fastest time in the combined GTE field with GTE Am and saw a storyline that appeared to be set to go through a race meeting. Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz beat the time with the No. 91 Pro Car (1: 57.983), Matteo Cairoli was the second fastest in the GTE combined order, with the No. 56 Team Project 1 GTE AM Porsche 1: 58.177. bottom. They are the top two in Porsche 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and No. A pair of 92 Pro Cars, Dempsey Proton GTE Amcars, and two Amaston Martins followed in order before the first Ferrari – 8th-8th fastest. But it wasn’t a professional car. In fact, three Am-class 488 GTEs beat the fastest of the two pro cars. This is after Ferrari has made it very clear that he is dissatisfied with the BoP being offered to the car here. Power savings and minor weight adjustments that have been criticized by the Italian camp. “We were forced to adopt a defensive strategy following the announcement of new balance of payments parameters that would disable automatic balance of payments,” Ferrari said in a media release at the pre-race conference. However, I don’t think the FP1 pace of professional cars in particular is maximizing its potential. Some Am Ferraris have a BoP that is more disadvantageous than the Pro 488, surpassing today’s Pro cars.