Hartley Quickest Again in FP2; AF Corse Leads GTE-Pro

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Brendon Hartley continued to set the pace in Bahrain, with the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver topping the time charts in Friday morning’s Free Practice 2.

The Kiwi reeled off a 1:47.673 early in the 90-minute session to edge out the sister No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi by 0.527 seconds.

Hartley’s time improved on his 1:48.490 set in Thursday evening’s night practice for the FIA World Endurance Championship season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson from Signatech was third quickest, although nearly 1.5 seconds adrift.

The Alpine’s time, however, was faster than the LMP2 pace-setting No. 29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 Gibson of Guido van der Garde, who recorded a 1:50.513 lap time in the TDS-run entry.

The Dutchman’s lap was 0.046 seconds quicker than the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca in second.

The No. 31 Team WRT Oreca was third quickest in class followed by the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition entry in fourth and ARC Bratislava’s Oreca, which completed the top-five.

Championship contenders JOTA were mired down in eighth and tenth with its two entries, meanwhile.

Ferrari led the first session of the two Bahrain events, with Miguel Molina recording a best lap of 1:57.569 in the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Unlike FP1, all four of the GTE-Pro entries ventured out shortly after the start of the session, with Molina’s time coming in the early moments.

It was 0.415 seconds quicker than the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Fred Makowiecki, with the sister No. 92 Porsche of Kevin Estre third on the time sheets.

GTE-Am was led by the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Matt Campbell, thanks to a 1:58.489 lap time by the Australian.

Campbell edged out the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari by 0.227 seconds, with the No. 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari third on the time sheets.

The session featured a single Full Course Caution, for a spin by the No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Satoshi Hoshino, who spun off into the grave between Turns 2 and 3.

Free Practice 3 is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John