Credit: XPB Images
Sebastien Buemi continued to control the pace in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar after two hours of running in the Eight Hours of Bahrain and has handed over driving duties of the leading car to Brendon Hartley
After the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale got off to a chaotic start, proceedings began to settle down during the second hour of running – with just a brief Full Course Yellow due to debris at Turn 1 being the only major incident.
With the race lead, the #8 Toyota has one hand on the Hypercar championship crown and it looks like only an incident or technical issue could prevent the crew’s hopeful charge to the title.
Meanwhile, the #51 Ferrari 499P, capitalising from the opening lap chaos, continues its distant pursuit in second with Alessandro Pier Guidi handing over to James Calado at the top of the hour.
Mike Conway’s charge from the back of the field due to an opening lap spin halted in third place in the #7 Toyota and he pitted at the top of the hour to make way for Kamui Kobayashi.
Leading the way for the Porsche contingent is the customer #38 Hertz Team Jota 963 machine, with Will Stevens running well in fourth place before handing over driving duties to Yifei Ye.
The second of the two Ferraris lies in fifth place after two hours of running, with Miguel Molina making way for Antonio Fuoco behind the wheel of the #50 machine.
The next three positions are all occupied by Porsche 963 machines, with a tussle early on in the second hour between Neel Jani in the #99 Proton machine and Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Penske factory machine providing plenty of excitement.
The pair tussled for several laps, utilising GTE Am machines to box one another in, but eventually Vanthoor won out and it wasn’t long before he was then given the green light to swap positions with teammate Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche to assume sixth place.
Kevin Estre jumped behind the wheel in the #6 Porsche, with Dane Cameron running in seventh in the #5 car and Harry Tincknell taking over from Neel Jani to continue the #99 Proton’s run in eighth.
In LMP2, the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 machine held the lead since the start but is set to drop to the back of the class field due to a 90-second stop/go penalty for a technical infringement.
That will allow the #31 Team WRT machine of Ferdiandn Hasburg to take control of LMP2 proceedings, with the second #41 WRT entrant and LMP2 Champion-elect in second with Robert Kubica at the helm.
Juan Manuel Correa lies in third in LMP2 in the #9 Prema racing entrant.
Over in GTE Am, it was an exciting time to be behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR – 19, with the top two places in the category occupied by the rear-engined monsters.
Mikkel Pedersen holds the lead n the #77 Dempsey-Proton machine, with Alessio Picariello in second in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche and Ian Hames in third in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage.
Keyword: Hartley and Toyota maintain lead after two hours in Bahrain