Bahrain 8 Hours: Hour 7

Four fresh tires for Rebellion.  Norman Nato will stay in the car.  Ferrari has a driver change as well.  Pit stop time for the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car as well.  They are struggling to manage their tires.  Aston Martin is to the fore in GTE Pro.  With new tires, Bruno Senna is now at the controls of the #1 Rebellion.  Richard Lietz is in the pit lane as well, taking a tear off off of the windscreen of the Porsche.  The Porsche team has lost a little time with a recalcitrant wheel or air gun.  A kerfuffle with said wheel.  Ross Gunn moves to the lead in GTE Am.  Driver talent and strategy are really coming to the fore, especially in LMP2.  Track temperature has only dropped by six degrees Celsius, from 30 to 24.  Mike Conway makes another scheduled stop for Toyota #7 handing the car to Kamui Kobayashi. 

They have kept their advantage for the whole race so far.  It was handed to them in the first ten seconds since the red lights went out to start the race.  Romain Rusinov gets a final warning on abuse of track limits.  Three turns on the road are being monitored.  Alex Lynn leads by 26 seconds over the rest of the GTE Pro scrap.  Nikki Thiim has been able to slide past his competition, particularly Davide Rigon and James Calado in the Ferrari's.  Alex Lynn does have to stop to put him on a scheduled for the end of the race.  They may split the stints up as we get closer to the end.  The Aston Martin's will get championship points because of the race going absolutely pear shaped for Porsche.

It's a drag race between the Ferrari and the Aston, and the Ferrari moves ahead of the Aston for second in class.  Miguel Molina sold the dummy to Nikki Thiim.  You just can't buy the dummy if someone sells it to you, otherwise you will be passed.  Always take the points.  That wins the championship at the end of the season, as Aston Martin are in the lane with the factory car and poor old TF Sport are in the garage in GTE Am.  That's not good.  Ross Gunn leads over Jeroen Bleekemolen in LM GTE Am.  In LM GTE Pro, AF Corse lead Alex Lynn in the #95 Aston Martin, and a spin, look, for Andrew Watson as he clatters Kei Cozzolino in the #70 MR Racing Ferrari.

More woe for Ginetta.  Poor old Chris Dyson runs five laps and now he's in the garage.  This appears to be another gear selection issue on the Ginetta.  The sister Ginetta is still stricken at the side of the road.  Bruno Senna is third in the #1 Rebellion, the car that won the race in Shanghai and started from pole here.  Alex Lynn drops from the lead of the GTE Pro class to fourth in class.  TF Sport has a fuel rail issue.  The car is not getting the petrol it needs.  Actually, it is the gearbox.  Deary me.  It could be both problems.  Hopefully not.  Ferrari, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Aston Martin.  Team Project 1 have gone back to the lead in LM GTE Am.  Larry ten Voorde and Jeroen Bleekemolen are driving the rest of the race.

Kamui Kobayashi has run 203 laps, 682 miles.  Jean Eric Vergne takes over from Romain Rusinov in the #26 G-Drive LMP2 car.  The #90 Aston Martin has lost nine laps to the GTE Am leaders due to the repairs.  Jean Eric Vergne is back on track.  United Autosport leads LMP2 by 17.8 seconds.  Charlie Eastwood explains that the fuel rail and the transmission are both on the blink.  He says, something's always going to go wrong at some point, with his heavy Irish brogue.  TF Sport will lose at least 16 points in their gap for the points in GTE Am and Team Project 1 will leapfrog to the top of the tree in the points standings.  The #33 High Class Racing LMP2 car pits.  Anders Fjordbach is behind the wheel.

Correction.  Mark Patterson is now in the car.  Francesco Castellaci has finished his stint and it is Giancarlo Fisichella getting into the car.  Thomas Flohr has finished his driving duties today.  Paul di Resta is passed by Mike Conway.  Toyota run 1-2 ahead of Rebellion, and the second LNT Ginetta, which may be being put back together and it could perhaps come back out.  They are firing the motor, trying to see if the transmission works.  It's got some drive left in it.  But will it be enough?  What you hear is the engine cut every time he pulls a lever.  But, there's no clunk of the transmission.  That is the fuel being cut, the reverse vroom vroom you hear.  But the transmission isn't working.  AF Corse #83 could be ahead in GTE Am by a single point if the results stand as they are when this race finishes.

A battle between Jean Eric Vergne and Mark Patterson, but Vergne is ahead of the Australian.  The #86 Porsche is reported to the stewards for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner, but that penalty has just been reported.  Have they got a little one sending them the report?  We have not heard anything.  Come on, sweetheart, you will have to go a little quicker.  Pierre Ragues is struggling for pace in the #36 Alpine A470.  G-Drive have not done the opening races of the season.  They will be back in Europe, however, they will not be at either of the American races at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, or Sebring, in Florida, and they are invisible as far as points.  They cannot score anything even if they run the races, and they will only appear again, in the final two races in Europe at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium in May and at the granddaddy of them all at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this coming June.

Again, this race is the longest event we have had so far.  Toyota #8 in the lane, with just over an hour and 20 minutes left on the board.  Kazuki Nakajima will take over from Brendon Hartley.  United Autosport is in the lane and Filipe Albuquerque, the Portuguese driver will take over the car from Paul di Resta.  A mechanic has hurt himself at United Autosport.  He might be OK though.  Still an hour and 20 minutes to go.  The performance between the Michelin's and the Goodyear's, you don't see much difference in LMP2.  United has maintained a good time gap over their competition.  Nyck de Vries has taken over the Racing Team Nederland car.

Giedo van der Garde will be the next driver into the car and Frits van Eerd has completed his drive time.  Gabriel Aubry has brought the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car to the lane from third in LMP2.  Will Stevens is into the car, taking it home to the end of the race.  Jota Sport in the lane from the LMP2 lead, Anthony Davidson at the wheel of it, and he'll take it to the end.  He is using scrubbed tires that have chalk marks on them.  The #22 car is back into the lead.  How many tires did Jota Sport change?  Drive through penalty for the #86 Porsche for an unsafe rejoin of the speedway.  MR Racing has been hit a few times today.

Nyck Nielsen will drive a GTE Pro car for Ferrari in the rookie test, tomorrow.  Once more, you will hear about that, early next week.  The two Porsche's are further separated.  Michael Christensen has an hour and a half to make up some time and gain another place.  Richard Lietz has gone past Jeroen Bleekemolen and poor old Michael Christensen is caboose on that train.  Alex Lynn fourth and Richard Lietz fifth in GTE Pro.  Matteo Cairoli has been given a final warning for abusing track limits aboard the #56 Project 1 Porsche in GTE Am.  Alessandro Pier Guidi locks up and runs wide, allowing Alex Lynn to move in closer.  In GTE Am, 198 laps, 666 mils are complete.

We also see the #47 Cetillar car having issues with a blown tire.  Roberto Lacorte is unhappy, as Giorgio Sernagiotto limps back to the pit lane.  #47 in the pits for service.  It's just one left rear tire onto the car.  Alex Lynn has a run on the Ferrari and the Ferrari is fighting!  Some argy bargy there, look.  Lynn was trying hard to not get boxed in, and under braking, Alessandro Pier Guidi is pushing, pushing, pushing.  Mark Patterson, meanwhile, is a pick.  He is holding up Alex Lynn.  But Patterson cannot just push the disappear button.  Race car drivers are not spies, and cannot use a smokescreen.  222 laps, 806 miles in the bag.

Jota Sport may have put new tires on.  But, this is contradicted.  They had to be scrubbed tires with no shiny on them.  Nyck de Vries will continue until Le Mans in 2020, but then, we don't know what he will do.  Except for the fact, that he will race Formula E with Mercedes.  WEC has set their new calendar, and now, the officials from Formula E are looking at it.  We only have 52 weeks in a year.