Bahrain FP2: Kobayashi quickest; Porsche 1-2 in LMGTE Pro
Photo: WEC
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Bahrain FP2: Kobayashi quickest; Porsche 1-2 in LMGTE Pro

The No.7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Hypercar sets the pace in the second 90-minute free practice session for round five of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship – the BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain this morning.

Porsche place 1-2 in LMGTE Pro, while No.28 JOTA takes top position in LMP2 and Matteo Cairoli again stars in LMGTE Am for the No.56 Project 1 Porsche. 

Beloiw are the main headlines from FP2.

Hypercar  

  • No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing run Toyota GR010 HYBRID emerges fastest from second 90-minute free practice session for BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain 
  • Kamui Kobayashi laps in 1m49.063s to go 1.5s faster than Sebastien Buemi’s FP1 best yesterday 
  • No.8 Toyota completes another 1-2 as Brendon Hartley laps just 0.030s adrift of Kobayashi 
  • Session red flagged with 20-minutes remaining after clash between Sebastien Buemi and No.85 iron Lynx Ferrari of Sarah Bovy 
  • Incident occurs as Toyota leaves pits and contact made at T1. Buemi suffers two punctures and suspected suspension damage 
  • Alpine ELF Matmut entry driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao places third  

LMGTE Pro  

  • No.92 Porsche GT Team entry fastest in LMGTE Pro as Kevin Estre posts a 1m56.411s lap in his 911 RSR-19 which he shares with Neel Jani 
  • Porsche again 1-2 in category as No.91 laps a mere 0.24s away from sister car 
  • Gimmi Bruni peaks on a 1m56.658s best as German manufacturer still enjoys pace advantage over Ferrari rivals 
  • AF Corse Ferrari third and fourth again as they adjust to boost reduction for this race 
  • No.51 Ferrari heads No.71 488 GTE Evo as Ferrari looks to try and reduce substantial gap to rivals

LMP2  

  • Tom Blomqvist claims the best time in LMP2 class for JOTA 
  • British driver sets early session time of 1m50.199s to go a second quicker than FP1 best time from yesterday 
  • The Le Mans runners-up No.28 Oreca-Gibson car leads United Autosports as Filipe Albuquerque places reigning champion car second but 0.8s behind JOTA’s best 
  • Team WRT third in category as Le Mans winning trio of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi aim for back-to-back wins in WEC tomorrow 
  • Norman Nato stops Real Team Racing LMP2 on track to trigger second full course yellow of session. First was deployed for debris on track 

LMGTE Am

  • Matteo Cairoli again sets rapid pace to head the LMGTE Am class as his early session 1m58.015s lap slightly improves his best from Thursday  
  • The No.56 Project 1 entry again leads class but this time from TF Sport Aston Matin 
  • A lap of 1m58.919s by Felipe Fraga sees the previous Porsche superiority split. 
  • No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third as Matt Campbell sets 1m59.020s best lap 

Free practice 3 will commence at 12h30 local time.