FP2
Brendon Hartley topped a second consecutive session in the 90 minute Free Practice 2 on Friday Morning head of tomorrow’s 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship finale, the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Hartley’s 1:47.673 in the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 gave the Kiwi just over half a second on Kamui Kobayashi in the sister #7 Toyota.
The #36 Alpine A480 Gibson, again in the hands of Nico Lapierre was third fastest over a second off Hartley’s best.
Giedo van der Garde topped the LMP2 times in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 Gibson, 1:50.513 from the Dutchman edging out Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports Oreca by just 0.046 of a second. The top two had over half a seconds gap to Ferdinand Habsburg in the #31 Team WRT Car with Renger van der Zande in the #34 Inter Europol Competition car and Ollie Caldwell in the entry in ARC Bratislava’s #44 Oreca completing the top-five.
The #52 Ferrari in the hands of Miguel Molina topped GTE Pro with a 1:57.569 0.4 seconds up on the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Fred Makowiecki.
GTE-Am was topped by Matt Campbell aboard the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche with a lap in 1:58.489, two tenths up on the best effort from Antonio Fuoco in the #47 Cetilar Racing.
FP3
It was a clean sweep of Free Practice sessions for Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota as he topped the final 60-minute session with a lap in 1:48.346s that topped the sister #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi by 0.3s.
JOTA headed the LMP2 times as the #38 car driven by Antonio Felix da Costa edged their closest rivals with a best lap of 1:51.188s.
Filipe Albuquerque split the JOTA cars at the top of the order with a best lap of 1:51.524s in the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
Richard Mille Racing placed an impressive fourth with a 1:52.681 set by Sophia Floersch.
Realteam Racing was the best Pro/Am entry fifth in the overall LMP2 category.
Kevin Estre topped LMGTE Pro in #92 Porsche with a 1:56.590s lap eight tenths faster than the sister #91 car in the hands of Richard Lietz.
Matteo Cairoli topped another session for the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche with a best lap of 1:58.696s
Niklas Nielsen put the title contending #83 AF Corse Ferrari second fastest ahead of Cetilar Racing’s #47 Ferrari.
The #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari suffered a spin with Claudio Schiavoni at the wheel, returning to the pits where the team immediately set to work to change a faulty gearbox.
The session was red-flagged after a trackside marshal suffered an injured knee from a fall from the protective wall whilst attempting (under race Control instruction) to access the circuit to clear a dislodged bollard. The medical attended and the marshal was taken to the medical centre for further attention.
