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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Rachit Thukral

WEC Bahrain: Di Resta tops times for Peugeot, Porsche heads GTE Pro

In much cooler conditions than those from opening practice in the afternoon, di Resta was able to lower team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne’s FP1 benchmark by nearly a second to 1m49.613s in the final 90-minute session of the day.

The laptime, set just before the half-an-hour mark in the 90-minute session, put the #93 Peugeot 9X8 that di Resta shares with Vergne and Mikkel Jensen 0.045s clear of early pacesetter Brendon Hartley in the title-contending #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID.

Matthieu Vaxiviere ensured all three Hypercar teams finished inside the top-three as he lapped the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson in 1m49.690s, just 0.077s down on the chart-topping Peugeot.

Alpine and the #8 Toyota crews are level on points going to 8 Hour race, with the #7 Toyota that finished fourth in second practice with Mike Conway at the wheel having an outside chance at defending its 2021 title.

The second Peugeot entry propped up the five-car Hypercar field with Loic Duval setting an unrepresentative 1m52.147s lap that was only good enough for eighth in the overall order.

The LMP2 division was again led by the Pro/Am AF Corse squad, with factory Ferrari driver Alessio Rovera taking the top spot with a best effort of 1m51.787s.

His time was two tenths quicker than his nearest rival Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports ORECA and nearly half a second up on what team-mate Nicklas Nielsen had managed in FP1.

Robin Frijns put the #31 WRT ORECA third ahead of the second United Autosports entry, the #23 car driven by Alex Lynn, while InterEuropol Competition finished fifth in class thanks to a time of 1m52.279s by Alex Brundle.

The championship-leading #38 Jota entry was classified 11th out of 14th LMP2 entries, with Will Stevens setting the crew’s quickest lap, a 1m53.178s.

#31 WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2: Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The GTE Pro field was again led by Porsche thanks to a rapid 1m57.192s effort from Michael Christensen in the #92 911 RSR-19 at the beginning of the session.

James Calado was the only driver to lap within a second of Christensen’s time as he ended up a distant second in the #51 Ferrari, with Miguel Molina not too far behind him in the sister #52 488 GTE in third.

The #51 Ferrari carries an 11-point lead over the #92 Porsche into the last-ever race for the GTE Pro category that has been a staple of the WEC since its rebirth in 2012.

The #91 Porsche finished fourth with Richard Lietz at the wheel, while Nick Tandy’s early stint only yielded a time of 1m58.826s as Corvette was the slowest GTE Pro manufacturer for the second session in a row.

Porsche teams locked out the top three spots in GTE Am, with Matteo Cairoli quickest of all in the #46 Project 1 car ahead of the two Dempsey Proton entries driven by Harry Tincknell and Jan Heylen.

The full-course yellow was deployed twice during the first half of practice, but the session went back to green at relatively quick speed on each occasion.

WEC Bahrain FP2 results:

Cla Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'49.613  
2 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'49.658 0.045
3 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'49.690 0.077
4 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'49.773 0.160
5 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.787 2.174
6 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.993 2.380
7 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.107 2.494
8 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'52.147 2.534
9 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.159 2.546
10 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.279 2.666
11 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.379 2.766
12 France Lilou Wadoux
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.435 2.822
13 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.760 3.147
14 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.796 3.183
15 United States Thomas Steven
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.881 3.268
16 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.178 3.565
17 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Ireland Ryan Cullen
France Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.379 3.766
18 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Switzerland Mathias Beche
United Kingdom Richard Bradley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.626 4.013
19 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.056 5.443
20 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.192 7.579
21 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'57.995 8.382
22 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.391 8.778
23 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'58.514 8.901
24 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 1'58.826 9.213
25 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.717 10.104
26 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.859 10.246
27 United States Fred Poordad
United States Patrick Lindsey
Belgium Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.019 10.406
28 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.224 10.611
29 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.764 11.151
30 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.792 11.179
31 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.073 11.460
32 United States Ben Keating
Portugal Henrique Chaves Jr.
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.074 11.461
33 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.216 11.603
34 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.217 11.604
35 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.535 11.922
36 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.609 11.996
37 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.707 12.094
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