Peugeot Tops Tight Second Practice in Bahrain

Paul Di Resta topped the second Free Practice session for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, putting the French manufacturer fastest overall for the second session in a row.

Di Resta reeled off a fastest lap of 1:46.613 aboard the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 to lead the second 90-minute session at the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday evening.

In doing so, the Scottish driver improved upon a previous fastest lap from the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley. Hartley had posted a 1:49.658, which was quick enough for second placed and a mere 0.045 seconds down on Di Resta.

Alpine’s Matthieu Vaxiviere came in third ahead of the sister Toyota driven by Mike Conway, with the top four cars separated by just 0.160 seconds.

The second Peugeot lacked behind the rest of the Hypercar field, with Gustavo Menezes’ best lap 2.5 seconds down on his teammate.

As a result, the American fell behind the top three cars in the LMP2 class, which was again led by the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Italian squad led proceedings with a best lap of 1:51.787, set by Alessio Rovera. Rovera outpaced the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque, who had originally posted a 1:51.993 to top the class.

Robin Frijns came in third in class for Team WRT and seventh overall ahead of Menezes, United Autosports’ Alex Lynn and Alex Brundle for Inter Europol Competition.

The No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 again led GTE-Pro as Michael Christensen put in a best lap of 1:57.192 to lead the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado by 0.803 seconds.

Miguel Molina was a further four-tenths down in third, ahead of Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy.

In GTE-Am, an early flyer put the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli up top and leading a top-three lockout for the German manufacturer.

Harry Tincknell came in second for Dempsey-Proton Racing, with the sister car driven by Jan Heylen third.