Toyota in Command at Halfway in Barcelona

Toyota held a commanding advantage at the head of the order in the 6 Hours of Barcelona at half-distance, as the No. 8 TR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley enjoyed a cushion of 12 seconds over the sister machine of Kamui Kobayashi.

The two Japanese cars were being pursued by the third-place No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen, who was 28 seconds behind at 3 p.m. local time.

Taking over from Buemi at the second round of pit stops late in the second hour of the race, Hartley briefly ceded the advantage to the sister No. 7 car that Mike Conway took over from Nyck de Vries owing to Buemi’s earlier five-second penalty.

However, not long afterwards, Hartley swept by Conway and pulled away to the tune of 14.5 seconds as both Toyotas, in common with the rest of the Hypercar field, elected to switch to dry-weather Michelins on a drying track.

Hartley remained at the wheel after the third stop just before halfway, while Conway was replaced at the wheel of the No. 7 car after only a single stint in favor of Kobayashi.

Nielsen, who took over the No. 50 Ferrari from home hero Miguel Molina, was able to keep the gap to the Toyotas relatively stable and stayed well clear of the cars behind, led by the No. 83 satellite AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye.

Having been embroiled in fights with various cars during his stint after taking over the No. 83 car from Phil Hanson, Ye was 52 seconds down on the lead at half-distance, with around 10 seconds in hand over the No. 36 Alpine A424 of Victor Martins in fifth.

Alex Lynn had the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA car sixth, just behind Martins, while Dries Vanthoor ran seventh in the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 that had been given a penalty when Kevin Magnussen collided with Sebastien Bourdais’ Cadillac.

Sheldon van der Linde was eighth as the clock ticked past 3 p.m. but due a stop, running a contra-strategy after its earlier tire pressure woes, ahead of Earl Bamber in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R that was delayed in the contact with Magnussen.

James Calado was fourth when he went from wets to slicks, but slipped backwards during his stint before handing over to Antonio Giovinazzi, who was tenth.

Marco Sorensen was 11th in the better of the Aston Martin Valkyries after a lurid trip through the gravel just before halfway.

Peugeot’s Paul di Resta had ran in the top ten for much of his time at the wheel before pitting to make way for Nick Cassidy, but the Kiwi was running out of the points in 14th, one place behind the leading Genesis GMR-001 of Paul-Loup Chatin.

In LMGT3, the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo led by almost 20 seconds after a smooth run for the car that was started by Yasser Shahin.

Peter Dempsey was second in the Racing Team Turkey-labelled TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R just as the third round of stops were kicking off.

Sebastian Priaulx had been running third in the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO just prior to his third pit stop, which promoted Parker Thompson’s No. 69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO to the position, albeit 43 seconds off the lead.

Jonny Edgar, who is in a position to wrap up a solo LMGT3 drivers’ title, was fourth but had been handed a ten-second time penalty for Turn 1 contact with Martin Berry’s Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that was due to be served at the next stop.