No. 7 Toyota One Second Clear of Sister Car in Bahrain FP2

Jose Maria Lopez put the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid over a second clear of the manufacturer’s sister No. 8 car in the second practice session for the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Lopez turned in a time of 1:42.857 early in the 90-minute Friday morning session, while Kazuki Nakajima slotted into second on a 1:44.004 effort.

This marked a reversal of the Free Practice 1 order that saw Sebastien Buemi set the pace in the No. 8 from Mike Conway on Thursday evening.

Third quickest overall was the Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 Gibson which again led the LMP2 class, but this time in the hands of Nyck de Vries rather than Giedo van der Garde.

The Dutchman posted a time of 1:48.601 which established a gap of almost two seconds to the next-best figure set by Pierre Ragues in the Oreca-based Signatech Alpine A470 Gibson.

United Autosports’ Phil Hanson came through in third, ahead of Will Stevens and Roberto Gonzalez in the Goodyear-equipped Orecas from Jackie Chan DC Racing and JOTA.

After running off the pace during the dark conditions of FP1, the AF Corse Ferrari squad improved to lead the GTE-Pro field in Friday morning practice.

Miguel Molina rose to the top of the leaderboard with just over an hour remaining with a time of 1:57.193 that held out until the checkered flag.

The Spaniard led the category from Porsche driver Gianmaria Bruni who registered a 1:57.422 to go second, and Daniel Serra who produced a 1:57.801 to go third in the No. 51 Ferrari.

The best Aston Martin Racing time was a 1:57.900 from Richard Westbrook which put the British manufacturer’s No. 97 Vantage GTE fourth in class.

GTE-Am was paced by Porsche junior Jaxon Evans, who was the third-quickest GTE driver outright with his time of 1:57.773 set behind the wheel of the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing 911 RSR.

Porsche customer entries occupied the top three positions in Am as Team Project 1’s two cars ended up second and third.

Friday morning practice passed without major incident, although there was a brief FCY for debris on the main straight half an hour into the session.

Free Practice 3 is due to get underway at 1:45 p.m. local time (5:45 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2