The Bahrain International Circuit’s brand-new lighting system illuminated its first track session this evening as the WEC entrants took the track for the second of this event’s three free practices. The lamps had to cut through a humid and misty gloom that hung over the circuit for the duration.
Toyota held the upper hand over Audi this time around, with Buemi (#8) and Nakajima (#7) recording 1:44.5 and 1:44.7 laps respectively. Fassler’s opening bid was a 1:44.8 in the #1 Audi, though co-driver Lotterer was able to just overhaul Nakajima’s mark later on in the session. Buemi’s early time went unchallenged for the remainder of the 90 minutes.
In LMP2, Greaves Motorsport looked stronger here than they did earlier this evening, ending up fourth behind the #49 Pecom, #35 Oak and #26 ADR-Delta entries. “We didn’t use new tyres in this session, so I think the lap time is quite competitive,” said Bjorn Wirdheim. “It took a few laps to get your reference points in this session, but overall the lighting system is doing a good job. Then again, maybe it would be more fun if it was darker!”
Over at Lotus, young Austrian rookie Lucas Auer was brimming with enthusiasm at his first time behind the wheel of a P2 car and his first time driving on track in the dark. “I’m loving it, it’s great fun,” he declared. “Quite difficult, but fun.” The #31 car he shares with Kevin Weeda and Vitantonio Liuzzi wound up seventh in class with a best lap time of 1:54.188.
GTE Pro continues to be primarily an Aston vs Porsche affair, but this time it would be Marc Lieb, not Darren Turner, who would be the sole man to break the two-minute barrier. He finished up at the top of the screens courtesy of a 1:59.730 – nearly half a second quicker than Turner’s best. The second Porsche and Aston were third and fourth respectively. The Pro Ferraris once again struggled, getting only within a few tenths of a top-four time.
In GTE Am, Emmanuel Collard and Matt Griffin hit their stride this time out in the #61 AF Corse Ferrari, but no one brand dominated, with an Aston Martin, Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche occupying slots two to five.
Versatile Finn Markus Palttala is sharing the #76 IMSA Matmut Performance Porsche with Raymond Narac and Jean-Karl, and revealed some of the challenges presented by BIC. “We’ve been working on setup and tyres in the first session and this one,” he explained. “We’re trying two different things with the setup as well as two different tyre compounds, and we’ll decide which way to go after the session. The track is quite incosistent and wear is high, so making a decision won’t be easy – we’ll have a lot of thinking to do tonight.”
With just over half an hour of the session remaining, Lapierre wound up beached on the exit of Turn 15 in the #7 Toyota, temporarily bringing out the red flags but not seriously damaging the hybrid, while Tom Kristensen and Tracy Krohn were summoned to the stewards after an on-track clash earlier in the session.
Stephen Errity (@83ste)
