FIA WEC

Rebellion Racing Out in Front in Second Practice

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#1 Rebellion Racing LMP1 car on track at Bahrain, 2019
Credit: Race Photography

In the first evening session of the FIA World Endurance Championship 8 Hours of Bahrain, it was Rebellion Racing who led the pack. Another privateer one-two as Toyota Gazoo Racing looked, again, to struggle for optimum pace.

It was Bruno Senna who stole the headlines last night, setting an uncatchable 1:42.471. The closest competitor to him was yesterday morning’s fastest Ben Hanley in the #5 Team LNT. The #5 Ginetta team had a much better evening than morning, getting a lot of running completed and spending less time in the garage.

Toyota occupied third and fourth, as they did in the first practice session, with both cars over two seconds off the pace of the Rebellion team. It would be surprising to contribute this deficit to the success ballast as they are only reduce by a second more per lap than the Swiss outfit, but at the time of publishing the reason for Toyota’s lack in pace is unknown.

The second Team LNT Ginetta finished fifth in class having completed only ten laps throughout the day.

Will Stevens led the LMP2 charge for Jackie Chan DC Racing, holding off G-Drive Racing for a fastest lap of 1:46.147. The Russian car, in the hands of Jean-Eric Vergne, was down on Stevens lap time by half a second. The top three was rounded off by High Class Racing who finished seven tenths off of pace-setter Stevens.

#97 Aston Martin Racing LM GTE Pro on track at Bahrain, 2019
Credit: Race Photography

Aston Martin Racing made its resurgence in the evening session, coming off the back of a fairly mute FP1 to finish as the fastest two cars in class in second practice. Three time third-place finishers this season Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin held a strong seven tenth advantage on the sister car, with Lynn setting the fastest 1:55.696 in the #97.

Their closest rivals, FP1 class fastest #92 Porsche GT Team finished just under a second off the pace of the Aston Martins with a 1:56.387 from Kevin Estre.

AF Corse were the team to fall victim of being slower than the Am, with the best placed Ferrari 488 GTE finishing four tenths slower than Am’s fastest Matteo Cairoli in the #56 Team Project 1. Only the top three in Pro finished ahead of the Am cars, whilst the #71 AF Corse could do no better than second last, only faster than the Am AF Corse #83, with a 1:59.302.

The #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing and #90 TF Sport rounded off the top three in the Am class, just under a second off the pace.

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The Checkered Flag’s correspondent for the FIA World Endurance Championship. Working in motorsport as a hobby and as a professional, Alice is a freelance digital communications manager, video editor and graphic designer at OrbitSphere. She also runs and manages her own YouTube channel - Circuit The World - with videos on gaming, travel, motorsports and reviews.
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