As darkness descended over Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), the Hypercar and LMGT3 protagonists headed back out on-track in FP2, with BMW and Lexus leaping to the top of the timesheets.
Competitors made the most of another 90 minutes of running in Sakhir, notching up the laps around BIC’s 5.412km layout as they continued their preparations ahead of Friday’s qualifying and Hyperpole sessions
Sheldon van der Linde put BMW at the top of the pecking order early on behind the wheel of the #20 BMW M Series V8 he shares with René Rast and Robin Frijns
The South African’s benchmark lap time of 1m48.780s in the German prototype would ultimately remain unbeaten, as van der Linde went almost a full second faster than Marco Sørensen’s FP1 marker
The Dane, however, remained firmly up at the sharp end of proceedings, 0.262s adrift of van der Linde in the #009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, which is becoming an increasingly potent package at the end of its maiden campaign in the championship
In his final appearance for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies prior to taking a year’s sabbatical, Jean-Éric Vergne made it three different marques inside the top three at the flag, 0.421s shy of the top spot
Toyota boasts an outstanding record in Bahrain, and with its pair of GR010 Hybrid Hypercars occupying fourth and seventh places at the end of the opening day – the #7 ahead of the #8 – the highly-decorated Japanese manufacturer looks to be in the mix once again
Behind the #5 Porsche, the championship-leading #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P ended up sixth and best of the title-chasing trio, with Antonio Giovinazzi posting the best time in the car he shares with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi
Cadillac’s #12 V-Series.R – the season’s standout qualifier, with three pole positions from the most recent four races – was eighth in the final order as Alex Lynn lapped just under three-quarters-of-a-second off van der Linde’s ultimate pace
The #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie and Fuji-winning #36 Alpine A424 rounded out the top ten, with the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 a lowly 16th amongst the 18 contenders, as Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor bid to turn the tables on their Ferrari rivals in Saturday’s eight-hour bout
LMGT3
Lexus climbed to the top in LMGT3 in FP2, as rising young talent Finn Gehrsitz wound up almost half-a-second clear of any of his adversaries in Akkodis ASP Team’s #78 RC F LMGT3
The Spa-Francorchamps pole-sitter posted a best effort of 2m02.613s, marginally quicker than Ben Barker had managed in FP1 and 0.408s ahead of Akkodis’ nearest rival in the car Gehrsitz shares with Arnold Robin and Ben Barnicoat
There was less luck for the sister #87 Lexus, which stopped at the exit of Turn Eight in the opening minutes of the session due to a gearbox issue with Clemens Schmid at the wheel, prompting a short Full Course Yellow interruption
The Iron Dames – who made history in Bahrain two years ago by becoming the first all-female team to win in FIA WEC – placed second, with Rahel Frey setting the #85 Porsche’s quickest lap time
TF Sport took third spot courtesy of a 2m03.179s run by Daniel Juncadella, with Heart of Racing Team just under two tenths-of-a-second further behind in fourth; Mattia Drudi was the quickest driver in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3
Maxime Martin was the early pace-setter in Iron Lynx’s #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3, but it was the sister #60 car that ended up higher in the classification, with Lorcan Hanafin securing fifth position ahead of Stefano Gattuso in the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, which missed the start of the session due to transponder problems
Of the title contenders, the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari improved significantly upon its FP1 showing to place eighth, four spots ahead of the championship-leading #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche in 12th with the #81 TF Sport Corvette the slowest of those to set a time in 17th
FP3 will get underway at 12:00 local time (10:00 CET) on Friday, 7 November.
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