Kamui Kobayashi continued to set the pace during practice during the second session this evening at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Japanese driver put the #7 atop the timing screens with a 1:48.851, putting him over four-tenths clear of the sister #8 Toyota which slotted in second.
Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R was the only other Hypercar to get within a second of the #7 during the extended session, which ran for an additional 10 minutes to make up for the time lost to the adverse weather conditions in Free Practice 1. Its best time was a 1:47.690 from Alex Lynn.
Mercifully, the weather wasn’t a factor in FP2, with the cars getting plenty of mileage in under the floodlights ahead of FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow.
HERTZ Team JOTA’s Porsche ended up fourth, ahead of the quickest of the Penske 963s, the #6. It was another quiet outing for Ferrari AF Corse, its 499Ps faster than only the Vanwall, 3.7 and 3.9 seconds off the best time from Kobayashi.
In LMP2 United’s #22 ORECA set the fastest time again, with Filipe Albuquerque improving on his FP1 flyer with a 1:52.850, three-tenths up on the #63 PREMA and #36 Alpine ORECAs that slotted in second and third in the class.
GTE Am was the only class that saw its order shuffled significantly from Free Practice 1 earlier in the day. This time it was the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari that would finish with the best hot lap, Daniel Serra setting a 1:58.246.
GR Racing’s Porsche would take second with the #56 Project 1 AO Porsche third. Unfortunately for the ‘Rexy’ liveried #56, its day ended early when Gunnar Jeanette backed the car into the wall on the run to pit-in with 27 minutes remaining, severely damaging the rear end of the car.
Thankfully Jeanette was unharmed in the incident. However, team sources have indicated to DSC, unofficially, that the car is damaged beyond immediate repair, with chassis damage to the left rear corner. And in this, the last race week for GTE in the WEC, there are no spare chassis available. The car may make the ‘farewell GTE’ photocall this evening.
Track action continues tomorrow with Free Practice 3 at 12:00 local time.
