It was a good news, bad news sort of morning for Toyota Gazoo Racing as the second 90 minutes of Free Practice ahead of tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Bahrain saw the pair of factory GR010 Hybrid hypercar again post the top two times of the session with Kamui Kobayashi fastest in the #7 car with a 1:49.083, just doing out the best from the sister car, Brendon Hartley three-hundredths back in the #8.
That though was not the headline post-session with the #8 involved in a substantial contact incident as Buemi left the pits to join the session, and came into significant contact with the #85 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Iron Dame Sarah Bovy.
The resulting debris brought out the Red Flags for a clear-up with left front damage for the Toyota, though Buemi managed to crawl back around to pit the car, the Ferrari sustaining right-side damage. News from Toyota post-session was that the damage was not as bad as an initial look at the car might suggest, it will be back put in FP3.
Also in trouble in the session was Norman Nato, the #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca stopping earlier in proceedings in T14, the driver coming back to the paddock on the back of a motorcycle as the car was recovered post-session. That had brought out one of two Full Course Yellows, the earlier caution for what is believed to be a stray bollard.
It was an all Hypercar top three for this session with Nicolas Lapierre over a second back from the second Toyota in the #36 Alpine, and just five thousandths clear of the fastest of the LMP2 runners, again a Jota Oreca, but this time the #28 car topped the class, a 1:50.199 for Tom Blomqvist eight tenths up on Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports car, with Charles Milesi third-fastest ninth Team WRT car and Ollie Webb a welcome fourth quickest and leading Pro-Am runner in the #44 ARC Bratislava car.
GTE-Pro again saw a Porsche one-two, Kevin Estre topping the session in the #92 with a 1:56.411, a quarter of a second up on Gimmi Bruni’s best time in the second factory 911 and three seconds up on the fastest of the Pro Ferraris, James Calado with a 1:59.317 in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
That was again behind a gaggle of GTE Am runners, fastest again Matteo Cairoli in the #56 Team Project 1 the lap time.
The quickest Ferrari, the No. 51 AF Corse example, was 2.906 seconds off the pace as the Italian manufacturer continued its struggles amid a pre-event Balance of Performance change.
Matteo Cairoli again led the way in GTE-Am in the No. 56 Project 1 Porsche with a 1:58.015, nine-tenths up on the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin of Felipe Fraga with Matt Campbell in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third fastest in the class and also faster than the Calado Ferrari.
FP3 (60 minutes) follows at 12:45 with Qualifying at 16:30. Live video coverage is available via the FIA WEC App and free audio coverage is available via the app and the FIA WEC website with the regular crew of Martin Haven, Allan McNish and DSC Editor Graham Goodwin with Louise Beckett and Duncan Vincent on pit lane.
