Toyota in Control at Halfway in 6H Bahrain

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid has emerged as the quicker of the Le Mans Hypercar entries as the 6 Hours of Bahrain reaches the halfway mark.

Jose Maria Lopez holds a 22-second lead over the pole-sitting No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, which has struggled with tire degradation in the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Mike Conway stretched out to a 20-second lead in the second hour after undertaking another team-ordered swap, which came prior to the race’s first Full Course Yellow for debris on the front stretch.

It briefly saw the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson take over second as the No. 8 Toyota pitted but positions swapped back when Nico Lapierre brought the car in for its third stop in a strategic move.

A second FCY was called just prior to the three-hour mark when Juan Pablo Montoya lost the No. 21 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson’s left-rear tire on his out lap.

It led to all three Hypercar class entries pitting for service.

The No. 31 Team WRT Oreca of Charles Milesi leads LMP2 while the pair of Porsche 911 RSR-19s continue to hold command of GTE-Pro.

Both Neel Jani in the class-leading No. 92 entry and the No. 91 Porsche of Richard Lietz pitted under the FCY period. The No. 92 Porsche has led from the green.

GTE-Am is being paced by the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana, who has just climbed back behind the wheel of the Prodrive-run entry.

Aston Martins currently run 1-2-3, with the No. 33 TF Sport entry of Dylan Pereira second ahead of the No. 777 D’Station Racing Aston of Satoshi Hoshino.

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