Bahrain 4 Hr Report: Toyota Gazoo Racing run 1-2 at half-distance

Below are the main headlines at the halfway point of the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.
 
HYPERCAR 

• Brendon Hartley controls third and fourth hours in No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hypercar. 
• Kiwi builds on Sebastien Buemi's earlier stints to hold consistent 30-second gap over chasing No.7 Toyota now driven by Kamui Kobayashi. 
• But just before the fifth hour arrives Hartley has some contact with No.86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR of Mike Wainwright at Turn 11. No damage reported on either car. 
• Battle hots up for third place as No.51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P now driven by James Calado engages in close battle with Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 of Yifei Ye. 
• Ye spends much of fourth hour in a Prancing Horse sandwich as Antonio Fuoco closes on the gold Porsche in fifth. 
• No.6 Porsche Penske 963 rounds out top six as Kevin Estre completes spectacular pit stop when rubber deposits on front left brake ignites and causes small fire which quickly extinguishes itself. 
• Estre also survived a trip through a gravel trap after an altercation with the No.57 Kessel Racing Ferrari. 
• Porsche's also place seventh and eighth as Proton Competition (Tincknell) and No.5 Porsche Penske run closely with Tincknell eventually putting move on Dane Cameron. 
• Peugeot TotalEnergies run ninth and 10th as No.94 9X8 heads No.93. Earlier the No.93 served a 5-second stop/go penalty for a full course yellow infraction. 
• Cadillac places 11th goal 2 laps down after serving earlier penalty as Alex Lynn completes a double stint. 
• Floyd Vanwall completes the Hypercar runners in 12th

Hi @ValeYellow46 Great to see The Doctor supporting @followWRT at the #8HBahrain from the garage ahead of his WEC rookie test tomorrow in their LMP2 car #WEC pic.twitter.com/HHbHEBBMYO

 

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) November 4, 2023

LMP2  

• No.23 United Autosports goes from last to first as stellar double stint by Joshua Pierson gives Oliver Jarvis track position over chasing No.9 Prema and No.31 WRT 
• Close LMP2 battles at front saw Team WRT push to the front as Ferdinand Habsburg, Sean Gelael and then Robin Frijns all getting seat time in the third and fourth hours. 
• But as pit stops happen it is No.23 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson leads at halfway point. 
• Bent Viscaal hold second from Robin Frijns in the No.31 Team WRT which earlier served a 5-second stop/go for a full course yellow infringement. 
• Scintillating battle for fourth place sees Mirko Bortolotti in No.63 Prema and Pietro Fittipaldi in No.28 Jota battle energetically as the second half of the race begins. 
• No.41 title leading Team WRT car holds sixth as Rui Andrade gets his second stint at wheel before Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica take over later. 
• Inter Europol Competition places seventh despite another brief stoppage with an intermittent technical issue. 

LMGTE Am 

• Iron Lynx continues to lead the way in the final ever LMGTE Am category race, although they are waiting on Claudio Schiavone to see if a well Bronze categorized driver can complete his stints at the wheel. 
• Iron Dames place solid second as Sarah Bovy gets back in the cockpit for second stint at the wheel. 
• She heads the D'Station Aston Martin which continues to run third as Casper Stevenson takes over the cockpit and heads the No.33 Corvette Racing entry in fourth. 
• ORT by TF Sport are fourth as Michael Dinan enjoys spirited stints at wheel of orange Aston Martin Vantage. 
• No.54 AF Corse of Thomas Flohr and No.98 NorthWest AMR with Alex Riberas aboard complete top six. 
• Earlier the NorthWest AMR Aston had been in collision with the No.6 Porsche Penske but received little damage in the incident.