WEC: Peugeot nips Toyota in Bahrain practice

At the BAPCO 8 Hours of Bahrain, Peugeot once again outpaced its Hypercar rivals in second practice for the World Endurance Championship title decider in Bahrain, with Paul di Resta leading the way for the French marque.

WEC’S HYPERCAR TITLE SHOWDOWN
It’s tight at the top in the Hypercar class heading into the season-finale, with the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers Championship seeing two squads enter the final race equal on points.

Both the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 – Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa and the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480 Gibson of André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière are tied on 121 points, with the #7 Toyota of for Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez also in contention.

The Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship is a little less open, with Toyota on 147 points, 26 more than from Alpine. The Japanese manufacturer needs only for one of its Hypercars to be classified in order to take the title from the sole Alpine entry.

Hypercar

Peugeot TotalEnergies took the fastest lap honors in the second 90-minute free practice session at Bahrain International Circuit
As dusk settled on desert track Paul di Resta surged to a rapid 1m49.613s lap in the No.93 Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar
The Scotsman’s best beat the early pace setting No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar which had topped the times in the first half of the session in the hands of Brendon Hartley
The Kiwi had set a 1m49.658s lap as he and teammates Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa aim to add the 2022 WEC title to their Le Mans triumph in June
Alpine ELF Team, levels on points with the No.8 crew, place third as Mathieu Vaxiviere gets to within 0.032s of Hartley’s time
The top three cars are separated by a mere 0.077s
The No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid is fourth as Mike Conway claimed a best of 1m49.773s to head the second of the Peugeots
Gustavo Menezes is fastest driver for the No.94 car as team appears to concentrate on race pace and long runs for the majority of the session

LMGTE Pro

Michael Christensen was the fastest LMGTE Pro driver, lapping in a 1m57.192s best
The No.92 Porsche GT Team entered 911 RSR holds a significant advantage over Ferrari with a 0.8s cushion
The Dane and his teammate Kevin Estre head into the weekend 11 points adrift of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the LMGTE Pro title chase.
AF Corse again placed second and third with the No.51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi this time outpacing the sister Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Calado sets best time of 1m57.995s
Miguel Molina is 0.4s shy of Calado’s best as the Spaniard sets a 1m58.391s lap to go third
Fourth was the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 as Richard Lietz got his first serious running of the day and sets a 1m58.514s lap
Nick Tandy in the Corvette Racing entered C8.R placed fifth in class after driving for all bar six laps of the two sessions. The Corvette just isn’t fast enough.

LMP2

The AF Corse LMP2 car stayed at the top of the LMP2 category but this time it was Alessio Rovera who claimed bragging rights
The young Italian sets a scintillating pace with a 1m51.787s lap to lead the No.22 United Autosports USA entry. AF Corse also top Pro/Am division
Filipe Albuquerque had set an early benchmark time on a 1m51.993 s lap as he and his partners Phil Hanson and William Owen aim to end a difficult 2022 campaign on a high at BIC
Third was Fuji victors, the WRT Oreca-Gibson, as Robin Frijns laps just 0.114s off Albuquerque’s best
The second United Autosports USA entry ends session fourth but is involved in an incident at T13 with Alex Lynn and WRT’s Robin Frijns making contact. The incident is placed under investigation

LMGTE Am

Team Project 1 again top the LMGTE Am class but this time it is the No.46 911 RSR leading the way
Matteo Cairoli, so often the quickest driver in free practice session, does it again with a best of 1m59.717s
Dempsey Proton Racing are second and third to make it a Porsche 1-2-3 clean sweep
No.77 entry leads the No.88 machine as Harry Tincknell and Jan Heylen set times respectively
Fastest Ferrari is the No.54 AF Corse machine as Nick Cassidy ensures that 0.5s covers the top quartet
Points leaders TF Sport improve on first session with a 2m01.074s lap from Hugo Chaves to place eighth in class

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