6 Hours of Bahrain: Hour 6 (the finish)

We are in to the final hour of this race.  We have only nine hours of racing to go.  The final hour of this event and the eight hour contest back here in Bahrain, next weekend.  It's been a long day for everyone in the heat of the Bahrain desert.  The sun is beginning to set as Toyota #7 in the race lead has now run 153 laps, 514 and a half miles.  Kamui Kobayashi and company have been the stronger of the two Toyota's today as Kobayashi hits the pit lane, along with the two Jota LMP2's and the two factory Ferrari's.  They are splitting their strategy to the end of the race.  Car #56 has been reported to the stewards and must give the place back to the #98.  Clear as crystal.  Toyota #8 also in pit lane and they are putting on the same lap.  Kessel, D'station and Cetilar all pit in GTE Am as Kazuki Nakajima now gets into the #8 entry, taking over from Brendon Hartley.  

United Autosport, the #22 pitting from the LMP2 lead, and they will serve a ten second penalty as part of their stop for the contact with #34.  So, this cycles the #31 WRT entry back to the lead in LMP2.  Can the #8 Toyota complete a tire change without costing their drivers even more time?  That is the million dollar question right here, right now.  All goes well for the left front, the car is dropped from the air jacks and they are down and away.  Alpine #36 continues to fall into the clutches of Toyota because they have two more stops necessary to get to the end.  The #8 car had 29 lap old tires on one side.  United and Jota scrapping in LMP2 and WRT is also back there, having not taken tires.  Tom Blomqvist is desperately trying to move in on Filipe Albuquerque.  

They have the Alpine Hypercar in the way.  Blomqvist was right on Albuquerque's six exiting the lane, but now, traffic ahead.  Will Nico Lapierre have the power?  Yes, he will.  Mike Conway, who started the leading Toyota #7 says that an hour still feels long and despite their issues, they've had a solid motor race with good stints.  The pit work has also been right on.  Meanwhile, we can see the second place scrum in LMP2.  Albuquerque vs. Blomqvist and this is for second in class.  Blomqvist has to get the move finished now.  Blomqvist was chasing Robin Frijns for the win at Le Mans.  Could we see a repeat?  

Frijns is over a minute back, and Blomqvist, look, is really applying the blowtorch!  Antonio Felix Da Costa is 27 seconds down but is catching this lead battle at a rate of knots.  Blomqvist is British.  But, his dad, rallying legend for Audi in the Group B halcyon days of the 1980s, Stig Blomqvist is Swedish, and his mother, is Australian.  Blomqvist was born in London, and here comes the Englishman on the outside!  He's a little terrier, and Albuquerque is a bulldog too, defending.  The circuit commentator is getting animated and excited, and that's good.

Well done.  Blomqvist moves ahead.  Jota had led in the points before this race.  Who will win in LMP2?  Last November, Jota won with their team they ran for Jackie Chan, action film star and race team owner.  In 2019, United Autosports won.  So, therefore, the odds are evenly split with these two teams.  This is going to a humdinger of a scrap if we have it.  It's breakfast time to be sure, so, grab something to eat and a cup of coffee or tea, and sit back and watch this one.  I was about t say, grab the popcorn, but it is too early in the day, then again, maybe not.  Yhese two teams have won the last two races here in Bahrain.  The fly in the ointment, or the spanner in the works, is WRT, who have not raced here before.  

They could still show their hand before this race is complete.  Toyota #7 leads by 46 seconds.  Job van Uitert just ran a 52 minute stint before he got out of the #29 entry.  In and out of the lane from third has been the Alpine.  WRT lead Jota #28 by over a minute (64 seconds) over the first of the two Jota entries, as Tom Blomqvist is putting daylight between himself and Filipe Albuquerque, who, in turn, is being harried by the second Jota Sport entry, #38, in the hands of Antonio Felix Da Costa.  Both Porsche's in GTE Pro have made their final pit stops.  Ferdi Habsburg is very calm about the closing stages of this event.

You don't want to jinx anything.  Anything can still happen.  Habsburg said the team was really slow in testing but has now found pace.  45 minutes now remain.  In GTE Am, Felipe Fraga leads by 25 seconds which is a comfortable cushion.  The two Porsche's are still in a fight.  Matt Campbell aboard the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR has his hands full with the omnipresent Matteo Cairoli at the wheel of the Project 1 Mentos Porsche.  Augusto Farfus is 3.5 seconds behind in Aston Martin #98.  Farfus is closing as Campbell uncorks fastest lap for the #77.  Yow!  A touch for the #28 Jota machine, making contact with the #60 entry, the first of the two Iron Lynx GTE Am class Ferrari's!

Andrea Piccini at the wheel of that car.  Piccini is the cork in the bottle as Matty Campbell is pressing hard and wants by ASAP.  Matteo Cairoli is next up, and Cairoli is right on Campbell's six!  Third place, the #98 Aston Martin of Farfus, who is slower.  The two Porsche's now right behind.  Francois Perrodo has done his drive time.  Khaled al Qubaisi in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche is three laps down.  Cairoli makes his way past the Ferrari and is catching Matty Campbell again.  Final stop for the #29 Racing Team Nederland LMP2 Pro-Am leading car, with Giedo van der Garde.  van der Garde has been in the lane for a wee while, as the #44 ARC Bratislava entry is still in the hunt too.

Wow.  One of those tires is totally shot.  It's loaded with clag from the track surface.  The bits of sand and rolled up rubber have stuck to that tire like glue.  Four minute stop and go for #34 for a tire allocation infringement!  Stick a fork in those blokes.  They are done.  But, they might just lose one spot.  High Class makes their final stop for #20 and Robert Kubica probably stayed in.  We can also tell you that the #44 ARC Bratislava entry, has to be in the garage and it is certainly game over.

Kush Maini was at the wheel of it and it took too long to come in on the in lap.  Game over indeed.  An early bath.  So, we have that Campbell and Cairoli battle in GTE Am and the gap to the leader is coming down by tenths.  The leader is the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin.  Augusto Farfus holds station in fourth place in the factory Aston Martin.  Ben Keating is confident.  We shall see.  Felipe Fraga has the wheel of the #33 and will take it to the flag.  There is such a strong lineup of gentleman drivers in this field as the #44 ARC Bratislava entry is out of the race, although they are fixing it.  But the laptop being plugged in, is nto too good.  Game over.

Electronics have to be the problem.  Which software has melted down?  Tires suffer, brrakes suffer, drivers suffer, and electronics suffer.  Noise, harshness, and vibration are the killers for electrical systems.  Alex Brundle in the lane for a four minute stop and go penalty.  They are out of contention.  The Pro-Am LMP2 lead battle is heating up, as we see in the lane, a very junior Porsche driver, a young racing fan.  Intereuropol is in the lane and so is ARC Bratislava.  The WEC marshal is watching so everything is as it should be.  A tire not allocated or declared, was used on the car.  Administrative error from the Free Practice pile instead of the qualifying pile.

The #1 Richard Mille Racing entry in LMP2 makes it's last stop too.  We see #44 has rejoined the race as Matt Campbell has set the fastest lap for Porsche #77. Meanwhile, Giedo van der Garde for Racing Team Nederland passes Loic Duval in the de facto sister car for RealTeam.  Both of these cars are run b TDS Racing.  The gap to the leader is closing up.  It's close to being squeaky, squeaky time here.  Trust me.  Hang on to your hollyhocks boys and girls.  A four minute penalty is endless.  With the loose door, that is how the wheels began to fall off the Intereuropol wagon.  The driver is sweating like mad and gets heat synced.  He can't get cooled down, boiling in his racing suit.  How painful.  

Cairoli was in the lane eight seconds longer than Campbell, in GTE Am.  Might this be the difference between changing left side tires vs. a full set of four?  I would believe so.  Car #56 team manager summoned to to the Race Director.  Speaking of the Race Director, Edoardo Freitas clicks the radio and says, "team manager, car #34, call your driver to the pit lane because the left side driver's door is open again."  Ugh!  Stupid door hinge!  It has bitten these boys in the tail, once more.  When it ain't your day, it ain't your day.  Jeepers creepers.  Robin Frijns continues to lead the motor race.  Alex Brundle is told about the open door.  He says, "no, we don't have an open door."  

Maybe it is a trick of the light.  What about the sister #44?  Do they have a door ajar?  Watch for the third place battle in LMP2 because Antonio Felix Da Costa is closing on Filipe Albuquerque in a big hurry.  Team manager #34, ignore bringing the car in.  No worries.  So, the door was not open, and it had to be the sister car.  So, with half an hour to go, Kamui Kobayashi is half a minute ahead of Kazuki Nakajima.  The photographers will love this sunset, but they will be steaming hot in Nomex overalls just like the drivers.  Nakajima and company's world title hopes could be slipping away steadily.

All the pit issues for Toyota have been on car #8.  But it ain't over until it's over and you are in parc ferme.  Matt Campbell is running a truly competitive pace.  Matt Campbell and Matteo Cairoli are both closing in on Felipe Fraga as we see Robin Frijns now behind Nicolas Lapierre.  Fraga ran a 2:01.2 and a 1:59.7.  Campbell has been in the high 1:58 range.  But the scoop is that the tires are knackered as we see the #21 DragonSpeed car back into the lane.  Currently third, Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosport car.  Phil Hanson is ahead of his team mates, his co-drvers, Filipe Albuquerque and Fabio Scherer.  Part of the game is keeping speed up while you deal with traffic.

Compromise yourself the least amount possible.  No mistakes.  Be consistent and spot your braking points.  25 minutes left on the board.  Da Costa is six seconds behind Albuquerque.  If the two Porsche's get stuck behind Fraga, Cairoli will be right on Campbell's six.  Sporting Director Thierry Tassin looking on.  Tassin was a Formula Ford driver back in the 1980s.  Vincent Vosse, Kurt Mollekens, these chaps have been great drivers specifically in Belgian motor racing.  They've scooped up the European le Mans title and they will be winning a championshup in LMP2.

The team is from their old DTM squad and the engineer for WRT has worked with Peugeot and United Autosport.  Pierre Dieudonne is another famous name at WRT management.  Now then, Da Costa runs 3.5 seconds behind Albuquerque as there is a 14 second gap in GTE Am with just 23 minutes to go.  WRT's car that won Le Mans, had broken air jacks.  They also had a motor problem at La Sarthe.  Neel Jani says the Porsche race has been very clean between the two team cars.  They are focused on a 1-2 finish going into next weekend's race which will be a longer event at eight hours.  The heat will be a ig deal and the nighttime running.  The tire management will also be different.  

#92 will be able to chase down the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, one point ahead in GTE Pro going into the finale.  In GTE Am, meanwhile, the Aston Martin leads, and they will have fewer points between themselves and the AF Corse #83 Ferrari.  13.7 seconds the gap between Fraga and Campbell.  The LMP2 scrum is hot and heavy as Da Costa is quicker than Albuquerque at this moment.  A podium for United as well as championship chances could be slipping through their fingers.  

It is the battle for the final LMP2 podium place between the two Portuguese pilots.  How will Da Costa use the #1 entry as a pick?  Albuquerque is squished in there.  Albuquerque will lunge on Sophia Floersch who is staying out of the way as much as she can.  Anthony Davidson looking on in the Jota pit as Richard Dean is also looking on.  He is the owner of United Autosport along with McLaren owner in Formula 1, Zak Brown.  Matteo Cairoli is now catching Matty Campbell.  Da Costa is within shooting distance of Albuquerque but he is going to send it, and no dice.  Albuquerque defends and has more traction.  Da Costa will have to try a late lunge.  Again, no dice.

He will have to pitch a block pass down the inside.  Black and orange meatball flag for that antenna on the #21 Dragonspeed car.  LMP2 leader in the lane.  Robin Frijns, no dramas.  Down and away.  Da Costa continues to push.  Da Costa pits in two laps and Albuquerque, who is way offline, pits in three laps.  Man oh man.  Da Costa tries selling Albuquerque the dummy!  Oh boy.  Up the inside.  Wheel to wheel!  Rubbing is racing.  No drama for Frijns and WRT.  They are back out in the lead and back on the button.  RealTeam being passed by the leading Toyota.  DragonSpeed back in the lane for that antenna with a meatball flag.  Intereuropol make their final pit stop.  Toyota Gazoo Racing will be Hypercar World Champions as it is game over for Dragonspeed although they may go across the line to score half a point.

They neeed to repair the aerial antenna.  Hanley stays in the car, being cooled off with an air hose.  They've completed 75% of the race, and so they will be classified.  RealTeam pit and Norman Nato will finish out the race for them.  Matt Campbell gives up the chase, defending from Matteo Cairoli, and the tires are starting to wilt.  Intereuropol were penalized for using 20 tires, five and a half sets, instead of four sets, which equals 16 tires.  Five and a half?  No.  Four and a half.  No.  Wait.  Five sets.  Pardon my fuzzy math.  They've used two extra tires.  

Box, box, box, box.  Fuel only, for Jota, for the #38.  Toyota 1-2, Alpine third.  WRT leads a 2-3 for Jota in LMP2.  Porsche 1-2 In GTE Pro.  TF Sport lead from a Porsche 2-3 in GTE Am.  Aston Martin #98 is not close enough for a podium.  Blomqvist chasing Frijns.  This chapter continues.  Blomqvist in the lane so the gap opens to the WRT entry.  Fuel only and safety work for checking for dust and clag in the brake ducting.  Filipe Albuquerque now is in from fourth spot aboard the #22 car.  Toyota #7 serenely in the lead has run 179 laps, 602 miles.  

Giedo van der Garde in fifth, Racing Team Nederland needs no pit stops but they are a lap down on everyone else but they have passed Jota.  Maybe they had more in the locker.  But they want to replay the race again next weekend with 38 points on the table.  United Autosport must feel the sand slipping through their fingers.  They will be behind the eight ball going into the finale next weekend for dead sure.  There's cracking competition in LMP2.  Any of these top teams could move up to Hypercar and run a successful program.  TDS have Bronze rated drivers in their cars too of course.  14 points covers the top four runners in the LMP2 standings for the championship.  How close do you like it?  

WRT leads Jota now by 54 seconds.  175 laps completed.  588 and a half miles.  Team WRT will assume the points lead as Jota #28 drops to second.  Nothing is done and dusted, but Robin Frijns uncorks the fastest first sector for the #31.  Wow.  No Formula 1 style point for fastest lap in sports car racing.  53.215, fastest lap for the WRT car!  Yikes!  1:53.215.  Phil Hanson ran a 1:53.248.  53.5 for others, 53.8 and 53.9 for the remaining cars in the class.  All of these have a minute added on the end. Five or so minutes before this race ends.  Da Costa in third, Albuquerque in fourth place.

Albuquerque and Fabio Scherer are fighting on behalf of co-driver Phil Hanson and I don't think Phil Hanson has driven all the WEC races this year.  He does not have enough for Da Costa.  Hanson is the only driver on the team who can be champion.  Fabio Scherer was sick in one of the races and could not drive.  Filipe Albuquerque had a scheduling conflict with the IMSA championship where he drives for Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura.  Four and a half minutes to go.  In GTE Am, no changes.  The gap is down to eight and a half seconds, but Fraga is managing it.  He will have to push.  But it will be a deal where an incident might happen.  We'll see.  

Porsche's in flying formation which they have been since yesterday's qualifying and the last six hours.  It has been a controlled, formation run for Porsche AG and the Porsche GT Team.  Fraga continues to lead GTE Am, and so you haven't missed anything.  Giedo van der Garde won't take any chances.  Toyota #7, the leader, is cruising.  Traffic ahead.  The final lap is underway.  1:52 for Kamui Kobayashi.  Final lap of the penultimate event of the year.  They will slightly creep away from their sister car.  #8 trimmed their gap by a point but #7 is going to double their points tally.  38 for a win vs. 27 for second.  Next week will be a pole and a must win for the 8 hours next time out.

Checker flag awaits and Toyota #7 wins again with Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Jose Maria Lopez, who have a hat trick in Bahrain.  GTE Am won by the #33 Aston Martin for Dylan Pereira, Felipe Fraga, and Ben Keating.  LMP2 winners, the #31 Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi who take the LMP2 points lead.  #29 wins LMP2 Pro-Am.  In GTE Pro, it is going to be a Porsche 1-2.  #92 ahead of #91.  Kevin Estre and Neel Jani, one race away from being a potential FIA WEC champion.

So, your winners in Bahrain for the 6 Hours.

Overall/Le Mans Hypercar: #7 Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez     Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid

             LMP2: #31 Frijns/Habsburg/Milesi     Oreca 07          Team WRT

             LM GTE Pro: #92 Estre/Jani               Porsche 911 RSR-19     Porsche GT Team

             LM GTE Am: #33 Fraga/Keating/Pereira  Aston Martin Vantage  TF Sport

33% more racing, and more value for your money, next weekend in the season finale.  Join us right back here at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, for that, next weekend.  For now, so long, everybody.  Take care.

  

6 Hours of Bahrain: Hour 5

We are into the final two hours of this race and we won't really see the Toyota lap the Alpine, the leading Toyota.  But it might be lapped.  Alpine lost bucketloads of time on the last Full Course Yellow.  D'station in the lane and Satoshi Hoshino will stay behind the wheel.  No driver change.  Katherine Legge, fifth in GTE Am for Iron Lynx and the Iron Dames Ferrari.  Nicklas Nielsen has just completed a pit stop in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari and Andrew Watson is now at the wheel of the #777 Aston Martin and we did see a driver change in that car.  There will be a driver change at Toyota as well, fairly soon.  We now see the #7 Toyota in the lane from the race lead.  So, this is surely a scheduled service for them.  Let me correct myself.  Both Toyota's are in the lane together with #7 ahead of #8.

Driver change for the #7 car and Kamui Kobayashi takes over the car from Jose Maria Lopez.  This is Kobayashi's first stint I think.  Brendon Hartley is now in the #8 Toyota.  This is Hartley's second stint.  The #7 Toyota has done double stints for drivers the whole way through while it likely has been single stints for the #8 car.  Buemi, Hartley, Nakajima, and back to Buemi.  So, that's four single stints for the #8.  New tires for the #7 Toyota.  Each pit stop will knowingly be longer than the sister car.  However, if you think about it, your driver change is less than the fueling time.  Where is the car on the out lap?  17 seconds slower on the pit stop for #8!  Wow!  #777 Aston Martin does not have a lot of luck today.  Thye just been given another penalty, with a meatball flag, a black flag with a red dot, also known as a mechanical black flag.  

They have to pit.  Matthieu Vaxiviere is running on 33 lap old tires in the #36 Alpine.  There will have to be an extra stop for the Alpine relative to the Toyota's.  Whoops!  Brendon Hartley runs very wide through turn 12.  It looks clean, but as you get offline later in the corner the corner truns right and he gets on the dirt on the outside.  There's loads and loads of sand all over the road.  Remember, we are racing in the desert.  Kamui Kobayashi is given the gaps by his race engineer and so, he has 31 seconds over the sister Toyota and 34 seconds over the Alpine.  The gap is now what, 35 seconds I believe.  #777 needs repairs.  

Team manager of car #1 for Richard Mille Racing being asked to report to the Race Director's office with Sophia Floresch, the most recent driver to do a stint in that car I believe.  #777 has a loose front bumper while Toyota says the tire change went awry on #8.  Was it a failure of the rattle gun?  That's a possibility.  But 17 seconds is a race deciding and world championship deciding margin beyond a doubt.  We have just seen a couple GTE Am pit stops.  Matteo Cairoli brought the #56 Project 1 Porsche to the lane and likewise, Matt Campbell did the same in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19.  Matty Campbell actually took over the car.  So, in GTE Am, Aston Martin leads with Felipe Fraga over Marcos Gomes.  Then comes Team Project 1 and Dempsey Proton for Porsche.

After them, Iron Lynx, and AF Corse #83 and #54.  Katherine Legge has just made a stop in the #85 Iron Lynx entry while Daniel Serra is now pitting the #52 AF Corse Ferrari, bang on schedule.  James Calado has done an identical number of laps and they are clearly on a different strategy than Porsche.  That is an extension over and above normal due to the Full Course Yellow.  Neel Jani and Richard Lietz have both run 21 laps in their stints thus far.  Kessel Racing and Cetilar have also stopped in GTE Am from tenth and 11th.  Mikkel Jensen at the wheel of the #57 and Giorgio Sernagiotto in the #47 as Brendon Hartley is working the traffic.  

This is for position in second place as Hartley moves past Matthieu Vaxiviere.  The regulations have changed and with the Hypercar, they can't boost their speed until 120 clicks.  But there is also a lot of debris on the right side of turn 13.  Lots of tire clag out there.  He squeezes Matthieu Vaxiviere to keep the tires clean.  In replay, we can see that on the pit stop for the #8, the wheel nut on the left front didn't lock into place correctly when the mechanic hammered it home with the air impact gun.  The mechanic had the action on the impact gun reversed, and threaded the wheel nut the wrong way.  It looks like he cross threaded the nut.

Actually, they had the wrong tire or a tire from the sister car.  Oh dear.  That's against the rules because each car's allotted tires have a bar code specific to them.  Alessandro Pier Guidi completes his pit stop and takes back third spot ahead of team mate Miguel Molina.  The LMP2 leader is in the lane, Charles Milesi, as well.  So, Porsche have been leading GTE Pro and now #92 hits the pit lane while #91 stays out for another lap to save a lap on fuel mileage.  To add insult to injury for DragonSpeed, they've been fined 2,000 Euros by the FIA for the unsafe release from the pit lane after their wheel fell off!  Oh man, oh man, oh man!  Hit a team in the wallet, where it hurts, but a penalty is a penalty.  Pay up, or else.  

There is a wheel bouncing around, and fining someone for a human eaccident is a big deal.  But that is a 40 pound wheel that could hurt someone.  Porsche #92 is in now.  Fuel, tires, and a driver change.  Job van Uitert takes the lead in LMP2 Pro-Am with the #70 car making a pit stop and we have Dennis Andersen in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca LMP2 riding a bucking bronco out onto the sand there.  Off track and back on.  Andersen needs four minutes to be clear on his drive time for minimums for an Am driver in LMP2.  Andersen is on the podium in LMP2 Pro-Am, but, Oliver Webb is closing in a hurry.  

Miro Konopka has burned his time and he did everything he needed to do.  Driver change and new tires at RealTeam.  Oliver Webb is catching up as we see the #91 factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the lane now.  They have now run 121 laps, 407 miles.  Due to the lost wheel, Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman, and Juan Pablo Montoya have now lost their lead in the points standings in that category, in that section of LMP2.  Frits van Eerd is now second and in third, Esteban Garcia and Norman Nato.  DragonSpeed, RealTeam, Racing Team Nederland, and High Class all have a mathematical chance of winning the Pro-Am LMP2 crown.  So, there 'tis.

Ten seconds quicker by the Porsche compared to the Ferrari's on their GTE Pro pit stops.  Both Porsche's are back out and they have taken ten seconds out of the Ferrari's on pit lane.  Hot brakes for the #38 Jota Sport car in LMP2 so hopefully someone is armed with a fire extinguisher on their next pit stop.  That car will literally be coming in hot.  Anthony Davidson also mentioned issues with a long pedal, as we watch the GTE Pro battle.  Porsche #92 has now run 121 laps, 407 miles.  Davidson had to shift the brake balance forward.  Filipe Albuquerque runs second in LMP2 just ahead of Tom Blomqvist.  As we do another distance check, the leading #31 WRT LMP2 entry has now run 125 laps, 420 and 3/8ths miles.  

Blomqvist is back in that #28 entry and Antonio Felix Da Costa has the wheel of the sister car.  Whoops!  We've got a spinner, look, and it is Juan Pablo Montoya taking his turn on the whirligig.  Into the first corner, and the Pro-Am LMP2 points leaders are just not having a good day today.  He might make contact with the Iron Lynx Ferrari, car #85.  That is the Iron Dames entry.  Yup.  He just taps seventh place GTE-Am runner Rahel Frey, and loops it.  A racing deal.  That's all that is.  Yikes!  Montoya isn't in the clear yet!  He almost gets run over by one of the factory Porsche's!  The D'station Aston Martin is back in the garage with lots of d amage (damage), to the front end of that automobile.  

What remains of the front fender is being removed off the car.  There's bits of floor that also need to be ripped away.  Earlier in the motor race the rear decklid blew off of course.  Now, Sebastien Buemi is upset about what has been going on with the #8 Toyota  They are way too slow compared to the sister car.  It was tough to keep up, while losing ground to the sister car.  Buemi says he is not sure what happened with the tire, but the team did lose time stopping under Full Course Yellow.  They are chasing the sister car and the #8 delivered pole yesterday with Brendon Hartley.  Hartley is now driving.  The #8 car had not had a pole in two seasons, and more than two years.

October 2019 at Fuji Speedway in Japan was the last pole for the #8 Toyota.  Sebastien Buemi is a very talented driver, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve and will let you know how he feels.  Today, is his birthday.  Happy Birthday, Sebastien!  Alpine #36 in the lane.  Happy Birthday, Ben Keating, as well.  Racing is a physical exercise, honestly.  These guys and gals are athletes.  In the meantime, the gap now between Tom Blomqvist and Filipe Albuquerque has closed to just 8/10ths of a second.  The gaps in LMP2 are very tight.  Gabriel Aubry, on stint old tires, was impossible to pass when Renger van der Zande, on fresh tires, was huntin him down earlier on.

Now, we can see a gaping hole in one of the tires, and that looks like the one Montoya tortured earlier.  Or, maybe it is a tire from the Alpine.  That thing could have come off the car in the shape of a cube after the braking incident.  Whoever was driving the Alpine Hypercar, he locked the brakes for five to seven meters jaunting into the lane, and that has what has absolutely trashed that tire.  United and Jota, they could be running tires that are in the same condition range, or mileage range.  Tom Blomqvist was on pole, and really did well in practice, but in the race they just haven't had the performance.  Senore Pregliasco, your lunch is served, Sir.  

So, Ferrari team manager Batti Pregliasco must be taking his lunch break before the end of the race.  He has a banana tucked into his pocket, like a gunfighter with his .44 tucked into the side of a holster, like a cowboy.  A couple lapped LMP2 cars are ahead of the main battle.  #1 and #44 are not the cars we should focus on.  They are down the order with #1 seventh in class and #44 ninth in class.  High Class Racing got snookered on one of their previous pit stops which leaves the #44 entry of Oliver Webb ahead, for ARC Bratislava.  ARC Bratislava on the Pro-Am pdoium, as we watch Ben Barker chasing Rahel Frey in GTE-Am.  Iron Lynx Ferrari (Iron Dames) vs. GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19.  Rahel Frey has only just started her first and only stint of the race, and she will take the car to the end of the race.

Ben Barker is catching her hand over fist.  Frey has experience in single seaters, in open wheel cars, as well as DTM, in the old Class 1 touring car formula which has now given way to GT3.  Ben Barker sees an opening, and walks right through the old door there.  This is a swap for seventh position.  Francois Perrodo also has to finish out, and he has run just 48 minutes in two stints.  Maybe he did do a stint earlier on.  He started the race.  Maybe the timing is goofed up.  The timing is indeed screwed up here.  Hold the phone here, everyone.  Wait a second.  The timing and scoring is screwed up, because Perrodo has indeed driven two stints in this motor race.  Okie dokie.  We see the #52 AF Corse Ferrari cutting the curb in the battle with it's sister car.

We speak about how the tires can be punctured by the curb on the inside.  But the far side of the curb can do damage, too.  The tire is dragged back up over the sharp edge by Miguel Molina.  The inside shoulder is usually punctured by the curbs.  Watch out for damaging the inside of the wheel rim.  Now, United Autosport and Filipe Albuquerque, he is still being harried by Tom Blomqvist.  Catching is one thing, passing is something completely different.  Job van Uitert is six seconds behind Renger van der Zande/.  van der Zande's tires are knackered.  It's the battle of the two Flying Dutchmen.  WRT, United, Jota, Jota.  That's the LMP2 top four order at the present time.  van der Zande for the moment is right behind Antonio Felix Da Costa.  We can see the division know between LMP2 and LMP2 Pro-Am.  

Frijns leads the LMP2 class by 1.2 seconds.  132 laps, 444 miles completed by the LMP2 leader.  Meanwhile in GTE Pro, Porsche #92 has completed 127 laps, 427 miles, and leads the sister car by three seconds while the Ferrari's are more than half a minute down at this stage.  Kevin Estre is in the #92.  We thought the Alpine was a lap down.  Nope.  Not true.  It is still on the lead lap.  In the meantime, Gianmaria Bruni issecond.  Aye yaye yaye.  Let me correct myself.  The Alpine is not on the same lap.  It is a lap down.  Job van Uitert is now on his second stint, after handing over to co-driver Frits van Eerd for a single stint.  

Job van Uitert may or may not get back in the car.  Ah.  He's done.  Box, box, box.  Giedo van der Garde is ready to go into the car and he will have to drive the final hour and a half of the race.  Robin Frijns leads LMP2 as Job van Uitert must be catching Renger van der Zande.  The fuel is low on the Racing Team Nederland car.  Renger van der Zande has more gas in the tank.  Jota Sport came in with a two point lead over WRT.  They will be a wee bit behind and Phil Hanson will move up in points before the finale here in Bahrain next weekend.  The scrum for second is on now between Filipe Albuquerque who has it, and Tom Blomqvist who wants it.

The #20 High Class Racing LMP2 car is pitting for fuel, tires, and a driver change.  Dennis Andersen has fnished his stint and hnds the car to Robert Kubica, the former Formula 1 driver.  An hour and a half is two and a bit stints that are left in this motor race.  Four tires for Kubica.  Maybe they will have some spare left side tires still to use.  ARC Bratislava and High Class battle in LMP2 Pro-Am.  RealTeam are four points ahead of Racing Team Nederland for the LMP2 Pro-Am championship.  RealTeam, as of now, could jump to the lead, but #70 is only ahead by dint of the fact that #29 has just been in the pit lane.  

Fuel strategy here is going to be a tight squeeze.  Felipe Fraga, aboard the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin, is leading GTE-Am and is being overtaken by the leading Toyota.  Many of these teams are praying for a Full Course Yellow right now.  That's the way they think they can get back in the game with less than an hour and a half on the board.  But, as fans, we are yelling at our mobile devices now, going, "no!  Don't bring out any more Full Course Yellows!  Don't even think about it!"  Provisional points in GTE Am see AF Cose leading TF Sport now by 19 and a half points.  110 points for AF Corse and 90 and a half for TF Sport.  That is a reduced margin at this time.

There will be 38 points granted for victory next weekend and 27 points for second spot in the finale next weekend.  We are a long way from deciding championships right now.  ARC Bratislava car #44 in LMP2 is in the lane.  The biggest points spread in any of the classes is 36 and a half points from first to second in GTE Am, and the smallest is two points in LMP2.  Wow!  Ferrari #83 leads in GTE Am.  In GTE Am, the quicker guys have not been in the cars yet.  Matty Campbell and Matteo Cairoli, along with Nicklas Nielsen, in #77, #56, and #83.  In the #44 car that we saw in pit lane, Ollie Webb has finished his stint, handing the car to Kush Maini.  

Gabriel Aubry has the #1 car.  Take care of the crew and they take care of you.  Charles Milesi, being cooled down with the leaf blower that is used to cool the brakes on the car.  Oopsie Daisy, we have a spin again and it is the #34 that has made like a top or a record this time.  Renger van der Zande has rotated.  We have a local yellow at turn one for van der Zande's spin.  Cairoli, Campbell, and Nielsen, are the top three in GTE-Am.  van der Zande was assisted by the #22 United Autosport car.  Yikes!  Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of it, allowing Tom Blomqvis through.  So, the stewards will have a Captain Cook there.

Alex Brundle will be the next driver aboard #34.  A damaged dive plane on the front of the #22 car.  Filipe Albuquerque was doing his level best to stay ahead of Tom Blomqvist as Sophia Floresch is getting ready to get into the #1 Richard Mille LMP2 car, fist bumping the camera, psyching herself up.  She gets in as Gabriel Aubry has finished his driving.  Renger van der Zande on pit road as well.  Renger van der Zande stopping early after only 14 laps into his stint as we watch a battle brewing in GTE Am.  Matteo Cairoli is not in this fight.  He is third, a few positions ahead of the scrap we see between AF Corse Ferrari #54 and GR Racing Porsche #86.  

Francesco Castellaci scrapping away with Ben Barker.  This battle we are looking at on track is for sixth place.  The #56 Porsche is pressing to move into range of Marcos Gomes.  So, that is the Project 1 Mentos Porsche chasing down the #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR.  Barker wants to make a move.  Discretion is the better part of valor.  Castellaci has to negotiate the #20 High Class Oreca LMP2 up ahead, and there isn't a great deal of a speed differential between a GTE and an LMP2 car.  Barker chasing in the slipstream.  Here he comes!  To the outside, as Castellaci defends, but Barker makes the pass.

Remember the giant hole punched into the right side fender of the #54 Ferrari?  Well, the mechanics patched it with gaffer tape and that seems to be working, to a point.  Barker was cleared from Castellaci and he is quicker, honestly.  But Castellaci, he is going for it.  However, he does not have enough oomph.  Renger van der Zande is still in the #34 car.  Alex is actually driving now and he has an issue with the door opening.  The driver's door is usually the one you open but the passenger side door, if that's open, then you're in trouble, mate.  That was on his out lap.  Meantime, we can see the Ferrari GTE Pro battle steaming along.  

Alex Brundle is seventh in class in LMP2 running ahead of Sophia Floresch.  Nico Lapierre runs third aboard the Alpine, but the Alpine is over a minute and a half behind the Toyota's.  Car #7 leads the motor race, while the sister #8 in second spot, is 44 seconds behind.  Toyota #7 has now run 144 laps, 484 miles.  Alpine have had to make two extra pit stops, and they were caught out on a safety car scramble, too.  So they are without doubt playing catch up.  Next year in 2022, Toyota will have the advantage even more over Alpine because Alpine will still have a small fuel tank.

Alpine looks towards 2024 for the debut of their Hypercar.  Next year, it looks like we are going to have Toyota, Alpine, Glickenhaus, and Peugeot on the grid.  The radical new Peugeot 9X8 is slated to make it's debut and the car is unbelievable.  Pit stop time for the #21 Dragonspeed Oreca and Ben Hanley is going to take the car to the finish as Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman have already completed their drive time allotments for this race.  This should be a double stint for Hanley to the end of the motor race.

It is the only pit caller we have on this hot afternoon in Bahrain.  Something is wrong, as the DragonSpeed entry remains in it's pit stall.  There's trouble with the aerials and antennas on top of the car.  Some are for the pits to car team radio and others are used by the FIA for scoring purposes.  When it is not your day, it's not your day.  If you lose connection to the FIA systems, you have to fix that, and they had a light out as well.  Filipe Albuquerque and United Autosport runs third now.  One of the Jota cars is still second, and WRT leads in LMP2 with an hour and a quarter left to run today.  RealTeam and Loic Duval lead the Pro-Am portion of LMP2 over Giedo van der Garde and Racing Team Nederland by nine seconds.

Matteo Cairoli is under ten seconds behind Marcos Gomes for second in GTE Am.  Our class leaders are Kamui Kobayashi in Toyota #7 for Hypercar.  Robin Frijns is at the wheel of the #31 WRT LMP2 entry.  Kevin Estre leads GTE Pro in the factory #92 Porsche.  Felipe Fraga leads GTE Am at the controls of the TF Sport Aston Martin, car #33.  The gap is growing between the two Toyota's, since the second time #7 was waved by.  Good grief.  More door woes for the #34 Intereuropol entry in LMP2.  The stewards and the Race Director won't be happy about it.  Yikes.  #34 will have to pit.  The left door is open, and so they are reported to the stewards.  Either the driver definitely closes the door, or, it should be brought in for repairs.

The team may have to change the door, and hopefully it isn't the latch on the door that is broken.  van der Zande said he too had door issues during his stint.  The team strategy will allow them to move forward as Alex Brundle is now driving.  The more you bang something not closing, the more damage you do.  van der Zande still has to race for 15 laps with this door problem.  He either gets the door shut or he will be told to pit.  We are also keeping an eye on the third place GTE Pro battle between the two factory AF Corse Ferrari's.  Great slow motion action of the Porsche's and the Aston Martin's racing in tandem.  Sit back and watch.  Drink it in.

Sports cars in slow motion = poetry in motion.  Ten seconds added to the next pit stop for car #22 for contact with car #34.  Sophia Floresch is still scrapping with Alex Brundle.  Why would they not come in immediately?  Well, they don't want to do an extra stop to fowl up their strategy.  Back in the Group C days in the '80s (which yours truly blogged about on a different blog, extensively, years ago), the factory Rothmans Porsche team wuld lose doors off the 956 and 962 quite frequently, and they always pitted for a new door because the door assisted with airflow into the radiators.

Filipe Albuquerque and company have a reasonable gap over the Jota car.  Matteo Cairoli continues to reel in the gap towards Marcos Gomes.  Filipe Albuquerque will be punished with the next pit stop and Giedo van der Garde is farther behind.  He and Loic Duval are in a sizzling battle, while Sophia Floresch will capitalize on Alex Brundle's misfortune.  The door looks closed as the #34 is in.  They still have to fix the latch on that thing.  It's still not staying latched.  They will have to rebuild the door lock or there is debris in the door catch.

They slammed it several times.  It is no different than working on a classic car and having little things go wrong.  Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche in GTE Am.  Iron Lynx have not recovered from their earlier troubles.  Matteo Cairoli has his target acquired and he is pushing like crazy to get by Marcos Gomes.  It used to be if you wanted to flash the lights at a competitor, that you press the button and the lights would flash endlessly until you pressed it again.  This was distracting but also unsafe, and so now, there is a limit of the amount of time from the push of the button, for how long the lights can flash.  Cairoli makes a late lunge on Gomes!  Wow.  What could come out of this?  Let's hope this doesn't end in tears.

That was enough of a gap for the Aston Martin.  But, it is very dusty offline and the LMP2 car, the WRT machine, has to run wide to get past the GTE cars.  Gomes hangs on by the skin of his teeth while Cairoli has the preferred line into the final turn.  Cairoli is the fastest non factory Porsche driver.  But Gomes isn't through with him yet!  No dice.  Cairoli slams the door in his face, but Cairoli runs wide!  So he drops behind the Aston Martin, hooking the tires up with mega skid marks!  Yikes!  This is getting spicy!  Cairoli tries again but no dice there.

WRT pits from the LMP2 lead and they will need a splash and dash before the final hour is over.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  As far as Cairoli is concerned, it is like "nope, you will have to go the long way 'round, sunbeam."  Gomes drifts wide and Cairoli hooks up the traction and moves by on the outside.  Cairoli thought he had it made, but he's off the road, way in over his head there!  Yikes!  Cairoli it seems has gained a long and lasting advantage, and so there may be a penalty in his future.  

WRT and the other LMP2 teams on the saem stint strategy will have their plans as we approach the final hour of the race.  Gomes wants the spot back.  If it were me, I'd be on the radio, hollering to the team, "he overtook me off the circuit!  He overtook me off the circuit!", which in reply, the crew chief would say "understood."  Don't take unnecessary risks, keep your tires alive.  You don't need to race.  Do not force the issue.  The team though will be fuming mad when they get on the horn to Race Control.  

6 Hours of Bahrain: Hour 4

We are going back to green.  That was a longer Full Course Yellow than necessary.  Green flag.  That was a very much longer Full Course Yellow for the sake of housekeeping and we knew there were pit stops and kept the yellow out until the pit stops were completed.  Both factory Porsche's in GTE Pro took the opportunity to pit and were back on the road before we went back to green.  That solves everything.  Ferrari would be upset about Full Course Yellows.  They take away more than they give, but the short yellows can be a good sign, sometimes.  Jose Maria Lopez is told to not save energy but to try and see about the brakes.  No energy saving.  Use the brakes.  Qualifying set of tires on the left side of the car, so they have a couple more laps on them.

The GTE Am leader has lost time as Paul Dalla Lana was later into the pit lane.  There was a 12-15 second gap.  We see an Aston Martin 1-2-3 in GTE Am with #98, #33, and #777.  The #56 Project 1 Mentos Porsche is next in line.  Egidio Perfetii has done all his driving that he has to and Ricardo Pera is now at the controls.  Thomas Flohr holds down fifth as the best Ferrari ahead of Alessio Rovera, in the Am division.  That gap is seven seconds and falling.  Rovera has to hustle because he has Jaxon Evans, the New Zealander, nearly right on his six.  He's about a second down the road from Alessio Rovera and coming in a hurry.  

In GTE Pro Porsche runs ahead of Ferrari by 30 seconds.  We have crossed the halfway mark of this race and 11 hours remain in the season.  Three hours here and now and eight hours next weekend.  Up inside #777 goes Dennis Andersen in the #20 High Class Racing Oreca.  Oliver Webb is now at the wheel of the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP2 entry.  This is ninth and tenth overall in LMP2 and third and fourth in the Pro-Am subcategory.  After the hub change, now DragonSpeed are back on track.  Well, in the pit lane.  They will be back into the race momentarily.

The left rear tire takes a hammering around this track which will force heat into the hub assembly and whatnot.  But that's unlikely that just one car would have that issue as we have many Oreca LMP2 cars in this field.  Kazuki Nakajima says he had a good stint and was happy with the car and how it performed.  It looks promising for the rest of the race, but the tire degradation is a big deal for everyone.  They stopped during the Full Course Yellow and had to change something on the car earlier.  It is logical for everyone to pack into the lane during Full Course Yellow.  

This accounts for the discrepancy in time on the #8 Toyota pit stop.  So, Jose Maria Lopez has been struggling with braking and has run wide, losing ground to Toyota #8.  Mike Conway was not dealing with brake issues during his stint.  Ah.  #8 took left side tires and a driver change and lost 15 seconds in the process.  The #36 Alpine might be able to gain, but extending the Full Course Yellow, they lost 30 seconds.  There's over a minute, between Toyota #8 and Alpine #36.  It remains to be seen if Alpine will be able to gain that ground back and it will be a difficult thing to do.

The two silver liveried AF Corse Ferrari's run liner stern.  Thomas Flohr in #54 ahead of GTE Am points leader, Alessio Rovera.  The trio of Perrodo, Rovera, and Nielsen lead the Am championship by 36 points over Ben Keating, Dylan Pereira, and Felipe Fraga.  Next in line is the all-Italian trio in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco, and Roberto Lacorte.  They are 48 points down.  But one point behind them is the #54 AF Corse entry.  Eight teams have mathematical chances for driver and team titles in GTE Am.  Wow.  We can see Toyota #8 is struggling through the GTE/LMP2 traffic.

This battle is for fifth in class between Alessio Rovera and Thomas Flohr.  Rovera tries to lunge but thinks better of it.  Rovera is having the blowtorch applied by Jaxon Evans at the wheel of the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.  This is fifth, sixth, and seventh in the class as Matthieu Vaxiviere goes through the traffic.  We need a positional graphic for points but we will worry about that stuff later on.  We might just get to the end of this race without another Full Course Yellow.  We will have to wait and see.  We're just three hours in with three hours to go.  Double waved yellows with double yellow cars as the #98 Aston Martin crunches into the back of the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP2 car.  There's some argy bargy there, a tiny touch.  

That little scrum was Paul Dalla Lana vs. Oliver Webb.  In LMP2 Pro-Am, the race is on between Dennis Andersen and Oliver Webb.  We now watch the battle between Alessio Rovera in Ferrari #88 and Jaxon Evans in Porsche #77.  Ricardo Pera has split the three Aston Martin's.  #98, #33, and then #56.  The #1 Richard Mille Racing Team car is seventh in LMP2, the #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca in LMP2, and the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin in GTE Am, their Full Course Yellow speeds weren just reported to the stewards for review.  The RealTeam Racing car is also under investigation for improper procedure in the pit lane.  A violation due to people being in the working lane or an unsafe release into the fast lane on pit lane.

Not good.  Jaxon Evans still wants around Alessio Rovera.  He tries to put down the power but slides a wee bit in the process.  He has the better ru out of the corner.  Side by side and trying the undercut, Evans cannot get by.  Rovera holds him at bay.  But the entire GTE Am field has been nip and tuck for a good portion of this race so far.  AF Corse can lock up the Am championship.  But, they could also gift other racers into having a chance in the 8 hour race next weekend.  Now, 25 points on offer for a win today, but in the 8 hour event here in Bahrain next weekend, points for a win increase to 38.  The Porsche makes the slingshot around the outside and yes, he does.

Francois Perrodo will keep pushing.  He and his co-drivers want a title before they step up next year, in 2022, to LMP2 in both the FIA WEC and the European Le Mans Series.  Norman Nato looks on and will get in for another stint in car #70.  Let's hope he isn't in too much pain because he accidentally stepped on some glass in training and got the glass lodged into his foot!  Ouch!  That has to hurt!  Ferrari #54 has some damage on the right front corner of the automobile.  There's some wrapping on the right front dive plane.  Is that a piece of trash that came up on the track, or is it part of the wrap used for the graphics package on a lot of these cars?

There is a big, gaping hole in the right front fender of the car with Switzerland's Thomas Flohr currently at the wheel of it.  This is not ideal for the cooling or the downforce.  Ugh.  We can see another big chunk of something fall off the car.  Flohr started in International Le Mans Cup.  #54 had the hole get to the car after running over the rear decklid that flew off the #777 Aston Martin.  We do have that debris flagged at turn 13.  We also have debris at the entrance of the pit lane.  The marshals will clean that debris if we see another Full Course Yellow.  Just under ten seconds between Jose Maria Lopez and Sebastien Buemi in the two leading Toyota's.  

Alpine are still on the back foot as we will go to Full Course Yellow in 15 seconds for these two scenarios that have already been mentioned.  So, we are under the Full Course Yellow as we have debris and chunks of rubber on the road.  WRT in the lane, and Charles Milesi will stay in the car and continue his stint.  A quick fuel fill, but he stalls it for a wee while.  Now, drivers will be pitting even with debris on the side of the pit lane.  So, the marshals will pick that up and they've sliced the pie in a certain way so that will be possible while avoiding a stack up situation in the lane.  Now, the #34 Intereuropol Oreca is in for service.  Kuba Smiechowski has not done his full drive time yet.  

Nonetheless, Renger van der Zande is set to take over that car.  An hour and 15 minutes is the minimum drive time in LMP2.  Maybe the team will put him in for a shorter stint later on.  That too is a possibility.  Both factory Porsche's pit now too.  Smiechowski's drive time is completed now.  So, Renger van der Zande and Alex Brundle will take the car home.  Everyone has to bear right in turn 13 as we are sending marshals from driver's left to pick up debris.  Toyota #7 in the lead has run 103 laps, 346 miles.  If you are on a new tire it will be a benefit compared to a used tire.  The #70 RealTeam LMP2 car has some damage.  

We also have a pit stop for Alpine #36.  Sebastien Buemi says the traffic fowled him up and if you want the car to turn better, lock the rear tires.  That's odd.  34 degrees Celsius air temperature and 43 degrees Celsius track temperature.  This is our third Full Course Yellow.  This is going to be a sticky two and a half hours of the race remaining.  Now, we go back to green in under 30 seconds.  20 seconds to remove Full Course Yellow.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Trigger fingers ready.  Back to green.  Full Course Yellow removed.  Rovera scampers away and Satoshi Hoshino just wants to get Rovera out of the way.  Toyota #8 second in the overall and the second placed LMP2 car, they are together on the road.  

The LMP2 cars are weaving to get heat into the tires.  WRT lead LMP2 with Charles Milesi at the wheel.  For Satoshi Hoshino, his stint was interrupted by the Full Course Yellow.  He is enjoying his time in an Aston Martin far more than other cars.  Hoshino has been able to race an Aston Martin in Japan and so he is becoming more familiar with it than other cars he has driven in the recent past.  Seat time is what it is all about.  The gentleman drivers are running businesses and so they don't always have time to race.  Dylan Pereira continues chasing Paul Dalla Lana.  TF Sport run #33 and #777 while Aston Martin Racing run the #98 car from Prodrive in Banbury, England.  Renger van der Zande has put in the fastest lap of the motor race for the #34 Intereuropol LMP2 car and he is catching the #1 Richard Mille Racing car in the hands of Frenchman Gabriel Aubry.

Gabriel Aubry is subbing in this race for Tatiana Calderon.  Renger van der Zande is being told his gaps to the other competitors in LMP2.  He is being told push, push, push, right to the end.  Renger van der Zande will surely push Gabriel Aubry indeed.  It will be driver performance and tire selection.  Paul Dalla Lana, meanwhile, is not making life easy for Dylan Pereira, but with Porsche Super Cup experience, Dylan Pereira knows how to race hard.  Pereira tries the inside.  Dalla Lana still in the fight.  Pereira looked like he might not have the run up the hill, but now he is home and hosed past Dalla Lana.  

So, the TF Sport Aston Martin goes to the lead of GTE Am.  Paul Dalla Lana will finish his stint soon and Ricardo Pera is third in the #56 Project 1 Porsche.  In replay, we see that Dalla Lana got squeezed by the Pro class Ferrari, one of the AF Corse machines.  Is this gaining an advantage by going off track?  Yes.  Dalla Lana seems to have gained an advantage, but just leave it alone.  Renger van der Zande is catching Gabriel Aubry.  This scrap is for sixth in LMP2, ten seconds behind Frits van Eerd.  This will soon be a scrum for fifth between three cars.  Eight seconds is the gap.  Fabio Scherer now has the #22 United Autosport car second in LMP2, 14 seconds behind the #31 WRT entry.  

Fabio Scherer has continually improved aboard an LMP2 race car.  Stoffel Vandoorne in the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 car in fourth place.  Anthony Davidson in the sister #38 Jota car is also much quicker.  So Scherer is stuck in the middle, 14 seconds behind the leader, and barely ten seconds ahead of #28 as Gabriel Aubry fends off Renger van der Zande's challenge.  Aubry has been a super sub these last few years.  He replaces Tatiana Calderon just for this weekend as Calderon is in Japan racing Super Formula.  Jackie Chan DC Racing won the LMP2 class here last year, in November of 2020.  Gabriel Aubry, Will Stevens, and Ho-Pin Tung were on the driving team that day.

Fabio Scherer is catching up to these two to put a lap on them.  Renger van der Zande is having to do more work than he'd want to.  Aubry locks the brakes and allows van der Zande to close in.  Aubry is on older tires and the grip will go away.  Renger van der Zande is on fresh tires.  United Autosport want to put a lap on these two I believe.  They are indeed already a lap down to the race leader.  Scherer has to deal with these two to keep in touch with Charls Milesi.  Frits van Eerd running fifth in LMP2 for Racing Team Nederland is a lap down, meaning only four cars remain on the lead lap in LMP2.  van Eerd continues to lead in the Pro-Am portion of LMP2.

LMP2 is still being led by the #31 WRT car as we watch this battle between Frits van Eerd and Jakub Smiechowski I believe.  But then, pan back, and we can see the battle between Smiechowski and the #1 car.  #44 and #29 are ahead.  Oliver Webb costs Frits van Eerd some time.  We nearly have all the yellow cars in one frame here.  The Richard Mille entry has been going in the opposite direction.  Gabriel Aubry has to catch Frits van Eerd and Renger van der Zande is closing in on that #1 car.  van der Zande will get a tow down the straight or so I would think.  Beitske Visser, looking on, and there, look, we find Gabriel Aubry moving his way past Renger van der Zande who now needs to push to stay ahead of Frits van Eerd as well.

Aubry on the inside, van der Zande on the outside line with more grip.  Renger van der Zande makes the pass stick.  Gabriel Aubry gifted van der Zande the opportunity to make the move.  Very well taken spot by van der Zande.  Aubry's tires are knackered as they are a stint older.  Renger van der Zande now has to put daylight between himself and the Richard Mille car of Aubry.  The cars bounce vertically under braking into the decreasing radius turn ten.  Meanwhile, in GTE Pro, #92 Porsche leads the sister car #91.  The Porsche's still lead the Ferrari's.  But the second Porsche is only 12 seconds ahead of the first factory Ferrari.

Both Pro Porsche's are coming up to lap the #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari, the other yellow car in this race we spoke of.  104 laps completed by the leaders in GTE Pro while in LMP2 I believe at last count it was 106 laps.  105 laps now for the Porsche's.  Fuel only on the most recent pit stops for the Porsche's.  Ferrari may have done a driver change.  Drive through penalty for the #777 D'station Aston Martin for not slowing down enough under Full Course Yellow.

Jose Maria Lopez still leads Sebastien Buemi at Toyota, in the overall and in Hypercar, by 11 seconds.  In LMP2, WRT continues to lead.  #777, drive through penalty for Full Course Yellow procedure violation, as the tape rewinds, and Edoardo Freitas is transported to a different dimension.  Wow.  Racing Team Nederland pits the #29 entry and Job van Uitert gets back behind the wheel.  Frits van Eerd has finished his driving for the day.  DragonSpeed says that they had a bad pit stop and they might have a broken drive pin but they really don't know.

Richard Lietz is told to stay where he is in Porsche #91.  Save tires and fuel.  Full driver change coming up.  Lietz might just be quicker than Neel Jani.  He will have to hold up the Ferrari's.  That is his task right now.  The driver only sees one part of the picture and cannot see the Ferrari because the Ferrari is too far behind at this moment.  They are being caught by the Ferrari's who are nine or ten seconds behind.  Don't panic.  Save fuel and save tires.  Make it impossible for the Ferrari to go by.  This is no time to roll over and have your tummy tickled.  Just prepare for the fight later on if there is one.  Ferrari though, to get close enough to take a stab at it, they have to use more fresh tires than Porsche.  Porsche could have more fresh tires left in the locker, when it is down to the nitty gritty and we get to the point of squeaky, squeaky time.

The Balance of Performance politics again are rearing their ugly head.  You can't see to catching them too quickly, otherwise, the jig is up.  Richard Lietz stopped too early on his last stint, so, he has a stint and a half which is more than extended time on one set as we watch Dylan Pereira of Luxembourg continue on in the lead in GTE Am aboard the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin.  There is an off circuit play for performance potential via the BoP for next weekend's season closing race.  Pereira leads his fellow Aston Martin driver Paul Dalla Lana in GTE Am by a whopping 14 and a half seconds.

Ferrari and Aston Martin will be back in 2022 in GTE Pro and in 2023, we will see Ferrari and Aston Martin in Hypercar.  2023 will be stacked!  So, what is the scoop at Jota and the #38 car with Anthony Davidson at the controls?  He says over a static filled radio, "I feel my brake pedal going a bit long."  Rear left brake is getting hot.  Switch the brake bias to the front brakes.  Everything is flexing and the brake fluid is getting hot.  Let's hope it does not boil or that could cook the brakes completely.  The left rear caliper is getting very hot.

You can only do a minimal amount with turning up brake bias to the fronts.  You run the risk of braking into the corner, and locking up on the front brakes completely which pitches you off the road.  We also see the second place LMP2 car, the #22 United Autosport entry in the hands of Swiss driver Fabio Scherer.  There's still a long way to go in this motor race.  Jota think they can manage this brake issue as Charles Milesi leads in LMP2.  Toyota can use their hybrid system to manage the braking but with LMP2 it is more analog and you rely on the clutch.

Stoffel Vandoorne runs third in LMP2, but the gap between Milesi and Scherer now is 21.8 seconds.  Stoffel Vandoorne is 16 seconds behind.  Everyone in the WRT garage is pretty relaxed and the same is true for the #28 team at Jota.  So, anyone in the top six could very well win in LMP2.  This is going to be a major battle when the last hour comes upon us.  The #29 team is eighth and they may not be able to reach the LMP2 podium, but, this race is not over yet.  There's a bit of a wriggle through the corner by the #38.  Pro-Am in LMP2 has RealTeam leading Racing Team Nederland by eight seconds or so.  We still have two hours left.  Richard Lietz is told he has a minimum of 11 laps left in his stint and he can push harder and use up his tires.

Due to the safety car, the Porsche's have split their stints.  They are beginning to back time to the end of the race.  The gap to Ferrari is not decreasing and the Ferrari's on newer tires, are still not catching the Porsche's.  Is the long game for the manufacturer's championship or the race win?  What's the deal?  Thanks to the marshals and to the cameramen who are bringing us pictures.  There's never a nice day to be a cameraman but they deliver some amazing images of these sports cars.  Gianmaria Bruni is geared up to take over the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 from Richard Lietz.  Stay behind.  That is the deal at Porsche for the #91.  They were waiting to see what a fully up to speed Neel Jani in the sister car would do and he is staying out of the way for the time being.

Now then, the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 is in the pit lane.  Fuel and tires, as Frenchman Julien Andlauer stays in the car.  This is the first stint for Andlauer in the car, sharing with Khaled Al Qubaisi from here in the UAE, and Adrien De Leener of Belgium.  Back in the lane is the #21 DragonSpeed car, as Juan Pablo Montoya will stay at the wheel and get a fresh drink bottle.  As the #33 GTE Am leading Aston Martin crosses over 110 laps, we look to the overall race lead and actually the car that chases the leader.  So, Toyota #8 still leads #7, and has now completed 118 laps, 397 miles.  Sebastien Buemi back at the wheel.  

Jose Maria Lopez is up the road.  All 31 cars that started this race remain on track and we have had no retirements so far.  Juan Pablo Montoya is preparing to get back on the track.  The 2019 8 Hours of Bahrain saw four retirements.  That was as many retirements as 2014, '15, '16, '17, and '20, combined.  This race is run in sweltering heat, but is fairly easy on mechanical issues.  In happier global times, this is the end of the season and the cars have absolutely been ragged through this portion of the year.  The factory cars can fly home and get attention.  But, the LMP2 cars and GTE Am cars sit for months between the tracks in shipping containers.

The reliability of sports cars has gone up incredibly in the last decade, decade and a half.  Aston Martin #98 is in the lane now for service.  Paul Dalla Lana brings the car in, and now we see the #22 United Autosport car of Fabio Scherer running really wide into turn one.  Paul Dalla Lana has completed his stint and he turns the car over once again, to Marcos Gomes of Brazil.  Felipe Fraga will take over the wheel of the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin as well.  We also see pit stops for the #54 AF Corse Ferrari and the #86 GR Racing Porsche, where Mike Wainwright, surely, has completed his drive time for this race.  So, he will hand the car either to Tom Gamble or Ben Barker.  My money is on Ben Barker being the chap to take over.

Fabio Scherer is beginning to recover from his spin.  Now, Francesco Castellaci is at the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari once again.  The tires on Fabio Scherer's car have to be knackered by now as we look at the #31 WRT LMP2 leader of Charles Milesi.  The margin between the two leading Toyota's is substantial at this moment.  Jose Maria Lopez's gap over Sebastien Buemi has ballooned to 16.2 seconds.  Job van Uitert is closing on Norman Nato for the lead in LMP2 Pro Am.  Nato is struggling and is a couple seconds off the pace due to right foot braking and the fact that he is racing in pain with his other foot being broken.  Race car drivers are incredible athletes and what Nato is going through should be able to tell and demonstrate that to anyone, even the layperson maybe watching sports car racing or any kind of racing, for the first time.

Sebastien Buemi is telling his team he needs to pit.  They have to hang it out as long as they can.  Sebastien Buemi has run 30 of 31 laps for this stint as Norman Nato is way off the road.  He injured his left foot which is normally his braking foot.  It is very hard to brake with just one foot that is also working the gas pedal.  You just can't make it work especially in a race car, and so Nato is losing a few seconds a lap at the very least.  

6 Hours of Bahrain: Hour 3

So, under Full Course Yellow, more wholesale pit stops.  Paul Dalla Lana is back in the #98 Aston Martin.  Into the pit lane we also see the #777 D'station Aston Martin entry.  Paul Dalla Lana in GTE-Am needs a whole stint even as an amateur rated driver while in LMP2, the amateur drivers can get away with running half a stint.  Marshals are out retrieving debris as the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 is in the pit lane.  D'station back on track as well.  Did the #21 DragonSpeed car fix the taillight?  If they didn't, they only have themselves to blame, but they fixed it.  OK.  Fine.  How has Toyota #8 not taken the lead?  Now, we are being told DragonSpeed spent a little over a minute in the pit lane which concludes that maybe they didn't fix the taillight.  Alpine #36, the third Hypercar, is now in the pit lane for scheduled service despite being delayed.

Toyota #8 is suffering more than #7 with tire degradation and it could very well be down to car setup.  That's a mystery because it hasn't worked to the advantage of #8.  #36 is third.  Andre Negrao tops up the fuel tank halfway through the stint.  Green flag and we have just passed two hours.  Jose Maria Lopez leads Kazuki Nakajima and Andre Negrao.  That is your order in the Hypercar division.  Robin Frijns, LMP2 leader has topped up his tank and he leads the category from Frits van Eerd in second spot.  Filipe Albuquerque is third.  Frits van Eerd has taken track position and going through the stint.  Inter Europol and Jota complete the top six in LMP2.  

We haven't seen a change at all in GTE Pro with the two factory Porsche's ahead of the two factory Ferrari's.  All four have pitted.  In GTE Am, Francois Perrodo has taken over the class leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari, while in second, Marcos Gomes, the Brazilian, has taken over the #98 Aston Martin Vantage.  Ben Barker has the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 in third place.  Toyota #7 has now run 62 laps, 208 and a half miles.  DragonSpeed have now changed the tail of the #21 LMP2 car.  The light was working but only intermittently.  

Toyota #7 leads the sister car now by 12 seconds.  That is the real world gap to #8.  They shouldn't have lost out but they did and the assertion that they have worse tire degradation than #7, the sister car, is bang on the money.  It depends on track position but also on Full Course Yellow.  The Alpine might be able to push and come back towards the Toyota's.  Marcos Gomes has gone by Francois Perrodo for the lead in GTE Am.  Perrodo is in the middle of his second stint to get his drive time done.  Then they can cycle the other two drivers through.  Good move by AF Corse.  Full Course Yellow offers you opportunities.

You don't decide in a split second.  Your strategists go through and think up how the driver rotation is going to work and then you execute your pre-planned strategy.  It doesn't mean the team doesn't have to think on it's feet.  But, a lot of the strategy is usually really planned out in advance.  Those are the windows we talked about earlier for opportunities to make strategy work.  Andre Negrao needs to find more pace to hang onto the Toyota's, but he is in traffic as well.  Dragonspeed are cleaning the non-working taillight.  Hmmm.  Is this just political gesturing on their part to say, we are faster than the rest of the LMP2 field?

Lighting on the cars is trivial, but it is a rule.  So, the GTE Am Aston Martin is a lap down from the GTE Pro Porsche.  The Porsche runs ahead of the #52 Ferrari.  We can see three class leading cars together on the road.  GTE Am with the Aston Martin #98.  GTE Pro with the #92 Porsche and LMP2 with the #31 WRT Oreca.  The #31 WRT car passes the Porsche as we see the Intereuropol #34 car passing the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry.  Jakub Smiechowski passes Frits van Eerd.  Ricardo Pera in the #56 Project 1 Porsche is now dealing with the #85 Iron Lynx Iron Dames Ferrari with Katherine Legge at the controls.  Legge has taken over from Sara Bovy.

This is Katherine Legge's second WEC race of 2021.  Great move by Ricardo Pera!  We see the #44 LMP2 car for ARC Bratislava also make a pass on Katherine Legge and that has Kush Maini at the wheel right now.  Legge was hoping to run more races in WEC but her IMSA program has also been a major priority with Team Hardpoint.  The #20 High Class Racing LMP2 has pitted.  We have Rino Mastronardi making his debut in a WEC race that is not the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  So he and Kush Maini are debutants this weekend.  We watch the battle of the AF Corse Ferrari's for third in GTE Pro.  Daniel Serra leads James Calado and that will change soon.

#51 lead the points, and James Calado and Alesandro Pier Guidi, they are looking for their second championship in WEC.  Jakub Smiechowski is behind Filipe Albuquerque and Robin Frijns.  Smiechowski is Polish for smiling man.  Interesting factoid for you.  Robert Kubica has Kush Maini chasing him in the Pro Am section of LMP2.  Jose Maria Lopez runs wide in the first corner.  Oh "Pechito", take it easy, sunshine.  Hit your marks.  Kevin Estre has now handed the #92 GTE Pro leading Porsche to Neel Jani.  Estre says there is a big advantage in leading and controlling the way you drive.

Ferrari seem to have less pace than Porsche and they can concentrate, be smooth, and fast.  Their fuel saving gives them confidence over the sister car, the #91.  Everything seems hunky dory at Porsche for now.  Maybe Ferrari can come back.  But, Porsche are working together to win the manufacturer's championship, and the #92 is ahead of #91, and they don't want team orders yet for swapping positions.  The main goal is for the team.  In this form of racing, in endurance sports car racing, you just have to play as a team.  Toyota surely want to put a bow on the championship.  Alpine's Achilles heel is a smaller fuel tank compared to the Toyota.

They are forced to elongate the stint artificially.  It has been 26 laps for the Alpine and 31 laps for the Toyota's.  Toyota's get five more laps on fuel mileage.  That being said, in a perfect world it shouldn't make an iota of difference.  If things haven't changed, why should the stint lengths be different?  You are on high fuel because of using full throttle.  Toyota may have oversold themselves when they said Alpine would beat them here in Bahrain.  Jose Maria Lopez lays down black skid marks in the middle of the corner!  He's pushing, and I don't have to tell you, hard.

The trouble for the Alpine is not lack of speed but fuel tank capacity.  The Alpine was designed to the old LMP1 regulations and so they were forced, when they entered the Hypercar division, to shrink the size of the fuel tank compared to the Toyota being completely built (and the Glickenhaus which is not here as we've explained), to the new Hypercar rules.  Either regulations set, for Le Mans Hypercar, or LMDh in IMSA etc. will be able to carry greater fuel loads.  Alpine, by racing this car with Signatech, they've bitten a baited hook and they will support a Hypercar program, and they will be testing a new car for LMH regs.  

Alpine team boss Philippe Sinault will be able to be very satisfied when Alpine does get their Hypercar together in a few years.  Running a team in this form of racing is a big deal.  Now then, Tom Blomqvist is running down Jakub Smiechowski but not by the amount he'd like to in all honesty.  Tom Blomqvist is coming in a hurry.  He needs to find 14 seconds to Filipe Albuquerque and then to Robin Frijns in the LMP2 lead.  Smiechowski is told to move his brake bias forward as the rear brakes are getting hot.  So, put more bias on the front brakes.  The tire wear looks OK.  Wind the balance forward "Kuba".  Kuba is the diminutive of his full name, Jakub (Jacob).

If you know who is in the car ahead and behind you, you can get an idea of how the fight will be.  Blomqvist will have been told that Kuba Smiechowski runs ahead of him.  #38, the sister car of Antonio Felix Da Costa, he is sixth in class in LMP2 just behind Frits van Eerd by three second, or three and a a half seconds.  Filipe Albuquerque is really putting in some fast average lap times this stint, running behind Robin Frijns.  As the Alpine scythes through traffic, the #34 Intereuropol entry in LMP2 that is his next target.  

Alex Brundle, Jakub Smiechowski's co-driver, is being coached by the team manage tires.  Alex Brundle says he is doing a brilliant job.  The team is really looking at the data and their tires are behaving well.  They've driven to the front of the field and kept their tires alive.  The Full Course Yellow messed up their strategy slightly, but now they are back on track with Kuba driving well.  They've come from nowhere and been very consistent.  Le Mans is where they really came into their own and the bright lime green livery on that car must have something to do with why they get noticed but do so in a less flamboyant way, save for the color scheme of course.

The team's development has been "monumental" according to Alex Brundle, son of Formula 1 driver and commentator, and 1988 Le Mans 24 Hour race winner with Jaguar, Martin Brundle.  The engineering team at Intereuropol, a lot of it is ex-Toyota engineers from their old LMP1 program.  Maybe in a decade, Alex Brundle would move into the booth.  He is very much like his dad in the ability to commentate on races.  While we've talked about Alex Brundle, we can see Job van Uitert working his way past Robin Frijns again.  

Charles Milesi is the third driver on the team for the #31 WRT entry and he is the only driver yet to step into it for a stint.  We have seen ARC Bratislava in LMP2 make their second pit stop.  It could be Kush Maini will stay in the car for another stint, for a double stint.  Robin Frijns moves past Job van Uitert.  OK, back into your box, sunbeam.  Kush Maini's first stint was broadly similar to Anders Fjordbach.  Fascinating, because Fjordbach is a far more experienced shoe at the wheel of a LMP2 race car than is Kush Maini.  We can see High Class Racing moving their way past the DragonSpeed entry as well, look.  Robert Kubica passes Henrik Hedman.  

Kubica is a Formula 1 race winner while Henrik Hedman is a Bronze rated driver.  Hedman has been passed and is off the LMP2 Pro-Am podium.  Henrik Hedman is putting his drive time in and that's his focus.  We haven't seen the Bronze rated driver for High Class compete yet.  That's the Danish driver Dennis Andersen.  He has yet to get into the car.  Before the LMP2 Pro-Am era, Henrik Hedman is one of just two Bronze rated LMP2 drivers to win the class.  Frits van Eerd is the other.  He won a WEC race while Henrik Hedman has won in the European Le Mans Series before.  Battle for position in GTE Am between two Ferrari's as the #57 Kessel Racing Car Guy Ferrari is passed by the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari.  Scott Andrews looking for a way around Roberto Lacorte.

Tom Gamble in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 is next up.  Mike Wainwright still has to drive one more stint in that car.  Andrews is scrapping with Lacorte.  Andrews oversold the dummy into the corner, and what happens when you do that?  Your rival, comes right back at you, baby.  Andrews though is not done.  He is going undercut Lacorte and pass him again.  So, here's it all again, but in reverse, look.  Lacorte is still fighting.  He still has the welly down.  Inside, inside.  Clear.  This is awkward for Scott Andrews to be sure.  

Lacorte finally realizes that discretion is the better part of valor.  The LMP2 battle will now include Sophia Floresch in the #1 Richard Mille Racing Oreca.  Robert Kubica and Henrik Hedman are also back there.  Sophia Floresch is aiming for Norman Nato, her next target, aboard the #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca.  But he is a long way up the road.  Floresch will have to chase him down the best she can.  The #38 Jota Sport Oreca will soon lap Sophia Floresch.  #38 is fifth while Floresch in #1 runs eighth in class.  Not sure who is at the wheel of the #38 Jota entry.  I think it is Roberto Gonzlez.  But it just as easily could be Antonio Felix Da Costa.  I don't think Anthony Davidson will get in just yet.

Pit stops and what you did or didn't do for service are going to come into play, but it is the after effect of the stop that is the crucial part.  Jose Maria Lopez leads the motor race but Kazuki Nakajima, is catching his team mate.  He is 3/10ths or 4/10ths of a second quicker than his team mate in a stint that has now lasted for 17 laps of the Sakhir circuit.  Nakajima is catching Lopez once again.  We know car #8 had four fresh tires.  But what about the #7?  What was their strategy on the tires?  The gap ebbing and flowing between the Toyota's.  We have seen two driver changes in Toyota #8 and everyone has cycled through the car.  Mike Conway did a double stint and we assume that Jose Maria Lopez will do likewise before handing the #7 car to Kamui Kobayashi for the end of the race.

Jose Maria Lopez says he's struggling with locking brakes and the front tires lock up and so he washes into and out of the corners.  Toyota have a sophisticated aerodynamic device to control braking when the hybrid system of the car recuperates.  Nakajima is almost 22 seconds up on Andre Negrao in the #36 Alpine.  Kazuki Nakajima continues pulling away.  Light up the front wheels, your rear wheels have no lateral stability through the S curves.  Dylan Pereira is now challenging Francois Perrodo for position in GTE Am.  This is the scrap for second place in the class.  

Perrodo finally has enough and he chops his away across Pereira's nose!  Kazuki Nakajima splits these GTE cars.  Here comes the #31 WRT LMP2 Oreca, and he could very well give a freebie to Dylan Pereira and let him pass the Ferrari of Francois Perrodo with no worries.  Pereira tries to get a double slipstream off both the LMP2 car and the Ferrari.  Will this work?  Will this end in tears?  Pereira claims track position.  But can he own the corner when they get to turn one another time?  Pereira sticks the pass.  OK.  Marcos Gomes still leads GTE Am in Aston Martin #98, 33 seconds up the road from where these blokes are.

Aston Martin resume station in 1-2 in GTE Am.  Tomonobu Fujii in the #777 D'station Aston Martin is in fourth place.  Fujii san back in the car after co-driver Satoshi Hoshino merely drove a single stint.  It may be a wee while before we get the possibility of an Aston Martin 1-2-3.  Fujii san is 14 seconds now behind Perrodo in the Am leading Ferrari.  In LMP2, Filipe Albuquerque is clawing his way up into contention and is a tenth of a second quicker than everyone else.  He is just 12 seconds behind the WRT entry at this stage.

Daniel Serra is third in GTE Pro ahead of teammate and points leader, James Calado.  Calado has taken a long time to catch up.  Two years ago, Calado and Pier Guidi were champions, in the 2018-2019 "Super Season" of FIA WEC competition.  As of the start of this race, they led Kevin Estre and Neel Jani by 11 points.  There are 64 points left on offer and up for grabs from this week's race, one for pole position, and the eight hour event next weekend that puts a bow on the 2021 FIA WEC season.  62 points are still on offer.  The Ferrari's do the old switcheroo another time, and there may well be a radio message instructing the change.  Miguel Molina is not in the championship fight.  He will just be a wingman and be a responsible, reliable teammate.

Ferrari lead Porsche in the GTE Pro manufacturer's standings by 15 points with one race still to run after today.  We won't be crowning champions today.  Toyota put four new tires each on both cars.  We have a battle for position in GTE Am between Katherine Legge and Jaxon Evans.  Evans, from New Zealand, he was a factory Porsche Junior driver but this year he is racing for privateer teams and has had a difficult year in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup racing.  Katherine Legge is running her first race in Bahrain I believe.  When she had her accident at Paul Ricard in France, that was the first time she had ever raced at the Paul Ricard circuit in the sputh of France.  She had run some open wheel races in England in both Formula Renault and Formula 3.

Then, she got connected with Paul Gentilozzi, the former IMSA GTO and SCCA Trans Am champion who became a car owner, to race in IndyCar with his team (back then called Champ Car), and she has raced in the United States more or less, ever since.  Katherine Legge was in the DTM for a few years as well.  But that is not a global series, it is mainly a European championship.  Paul Ricard is your second home as an endurance racer.  Preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans see the teams testing at three different circuits.  Motorland Aragon in Spain, Paul Ricard in southern France, and at Monza in Italy where we raced with the WEC back in July.  

Legge ran DTM in Shanghai, China, but I believe it was on a street circuit and not on the permanent circuit where we have seen Formula 1 race in the past.  The order has remained status quo in GTE Pro with the Porsche's #91 and #92 first and second ahead of Ferrari's #51 and #52 in third and fourth.  James Calado running ahead of Daniel Serra at Ferrari.  Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, they are 39 some odd points out of the lead.  There is potential for Lietz and Bruni to win the championship.  However, they might just understand that Porsche AG want the sister car of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani to be champions.  

Andrea Piccini is being chased down by the Porsche's, and he is aboard the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari sharing with Matteo Cressoni and Rino Mastronardi.  Andrea Piccini does have a brother who drives, Giacomo Piccini.  Jose Maria Lopez leads Kazuki Nakajima merely by four and a half seconds.  Katherine Legge has indeed raced here in Bahrain before today.  She did race the one-off Formula 3 Super Prix (Super Prize), that ran here in 2004.  Sir Lewis Hamilton was the winner of that event.  It was a national F3 festival.  British Formula 3 used to race at Spa and Monza and did so at the first race of the season.

Carlos Sainz Jr. won one of the races and so did Sergio Perez who swept class B.  Bahrain F3 festival that year, saw a 1-2 finished for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, a couple of legends.  There are five drivers in today's race that did run here in Formula 3 in 2004.  Blimey!  Who could there be?  Giedo van der Garde, Loic Duval, Matteo Cressoni, Paul di Resta, and Kazuki Nakajima.  Wow!  Jamie Green completed the podium, DTM champion.  Track limits for the TF Sport Aston Martin.  James Calado has passed Daniel Serra.  Currently, that is the smallest gap we are seeing in the whole of the field.

The second smallest gap is between the two Porsche's.  Marcos Gomes now leads GTE Am with Dylan Pereira more than half a minute behind, 33.3 seconds to be precise.  Francois Perrodo is next.  There is not a gap more than five seconds.  We are grinding it out.  The strategy is on cue.  Coil spring, laser focus, or not.  The poor mechanics are wilting in the heat right now.  Unbelievable.  The heat coming off the cars is unbelievable, never mind the heat in the desert itself.  We are looking for yet another round of LMP2 pit stops.

The strategies are all different.  No tires?  Two tires?  Four tires?  How about driver changes?  Who needs tires or fuel?  Robin Frijns has the #31 WRT entry in the pit lane.  Filipe Albuquerque takes the lead in the #22 United Autosports car.  He will take the lead and the #28 Jota Sport car, will see Stoffel Vandoorne taking over the wheel from Tom Blomqvist.  Anthony Davidson, a former FIA WEC World Champion, has also won in LMP1 in Bahrain, on two occasions.  Sebastien Buemi has two wins and so do Conway, Kobayashi, and Lopez.  Filipe Albuquerque continues on in the lead in the LMP2 class.  Who else has two LMP1 wins in Bahrain?  A French driver.  Not from the old Rebellion team, a Toyota driver.  It's Stephane Sarazzin.

#34 for Intereuropol pits with Jakub Smiechowski continuing at the wheel for a double stint.  Charles Milesi continues for a double stint in the #31 WRT car and the left rear wheel on Intereuropol has a problem.  Right rear for WRT.  Oh man.  What is going on with the wheels on these LMP2 cars?  Sheesh.  The GTE Am battle continues as #86 Tom Gamble in the Porsche passes Katherine Legge in the #85 Ferrari.  United Autosport and Jota are in.  Filipe Albuquerque stays in #22 while Stoffel Vandoorne takes the wheel of the #28 machine.  

Antonio Felix Da Costa has finished his stint as Anthony Davidson is now in #38.  Alessio Rovera has also stopped in GTE Am.  This was on a short call for Full Course Yellow.  Charles Milesi takes the LMP2 lead.  We have an interview with Robin Frijns and he says the competition in LMP2 is strong.  He felt comfortable at the beginning of his stint while fending off the challenge from Filipe Albuquerque and they are fighting the two Jota cars.  The high temperatures ambient make the tires suffer and so do the long duration corners.  Don't heat the tires up too fast.  Frijns will finish the race.  We're not quite halfway through this race yet.

The championship sees a nine point spread in the top three.  Jota #28 leads WRT by two points.  They are nine points clear of Jota #38 while Phil Hanson is fourth on his own, 14 points away.  Alex Brundle and Jakub Smiechowski are tied for fifth in LMP2 points, 23 markers behind.  It is a genuine five-car points battle in LMP2 and seven driver combinations that have mathematical chances for the LMP2 championship before we head to the finale here in Bahrain, the 8 hour race, next weekend.  Soaking your overalls in wateris a terrible idea because you will be steaming (quite literally), in a hot race car!  That could earn the what were you thinking?! award.  

Oh dear, oh dear.  The #21 has lost the left rear wheel!  You've picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel.  Juan Pablo Montoya, on his outlap, has the wheel come loose off the #21 machine.  So, Flex Box will be in the box.  This is a massive blow for DragonSpeed.  The wheel is loose, roaming around on the track someplace.  So a marshal will have to be dispatched to pick that up.  Full Course Yellow, potentially.  This should be a Slow Zone for now.  This is the end of Ben Hanley, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Henrik Hedman being in the hunt for the championship.  

Montoya has a long limp home and Henrik Hedman, just out of the automobile, can't believe it!  Anybody can make a mistake.  Half a dozen LMP2 cars have struggled with loose left rear wheels and loose tires with the rattle gun not working.  Full Course Yellow and Montoya has one drive wheel and no differential.  The half shafts will be completely shot  This is going to be a short Full Course Yellow and so Alpine will gain an advantage over Toyota.  In replay, from the onboard camera, let's see if we can tell what happened to Juan Pablo Montoya.  

Into the turn, engine revs up, the car wriggles, and he keeps the darn thing under control.  He was a very lucky chap he didn't go through a super fast corner.  As soon as the wheel departs the pegs, all you hear is vroom, vroom, vrooom.  It's spinning the driveshaft and only the driveshaft.  To rub salt in DragonSpeed's wounds, the stewards have put the car under investigation for an unsafe release from the lane.  Wow.  Dylan Pereira is in the pit lane now too.  Norman Nato brings the #70 RealTeam LMP2 to the lane as do Sophia Floresch aboard the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 Oreca and Kush Maini in the #44 ARC Bratislava entry.  He may top up and go for another stint.

We have both Toyota's in the pit lane as well.  This is a short Full Course Yellow as the tire has been recovered.  The Alpine just ran 28 laps on it's most recent stint before pitting, while before that it ran only 26 laps.  Now, DragonSpeed have finally made it back to pit lane.  This is good news.  Car #21 under investigation for unsafe release for, just what we saw, a wheel that was not tightened down onto the mounting peg.  Driver changes at Toyota.  Both AF Corse Ferrari's pitted and did quick stops.  Now, one Toyota takes a driver change while the other does not. 

Any straw for Ferrari, grab it with both hands.  Porsche are in the final sector.  Where will they end up?  Now, back to the Dragonspeed entry, that left rear wheel is not sitting on the hub.  Bad news.  You see the bolts that hold the brake disc to the wheel, and then there are the holes on the inside radius of the stub axle.  The whole thing rotates and that is what gives you the drive, the propulsion from the motor.  These are drive pegs on the race compared to stud on the hub of your passenger car.  The whole left rear quarter has to come out of that car.

We have moe GTE Am pit action with the exception of the class leader.  Right now we see the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the lane.  Aston Martin #98 stayed out but everyone else has made it.  Pit stops made for fuel to extend the length of the stint for minimum drive time.  Can we do it on the fuel?  Sebastien Buemi is back in Toyota #8 and Matthieu Vaxiviere is now driving the #36 Alpine.  No driver change in Toyota #7, but, a long pit stop nonetheless.  The driver change took an extra 15 seconds.  Toyota take the nose and the tail off to tune the balance.  

6 Hours of Bahrain: Hour 2

We can see the damage on the #20 High Class Racing Oreca for Anders Fjordbach.  The blue paint couldn't have come from the bollards, the cones on the utside of the track.  Could he have been trading paint with the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari in GTE-Am?  Whoa!  Fjordbach, going through one of the esses, swings way wide and then pivots back across the road and... crunch!  Right into the left front corner of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari!  Wow!  The driver of #47, we assume it is still Roberto Lacorte, he will have to be mindful of the possibility of a left rear tire puncture on that automobile.  Those shards of carbon fiber will damage not just the tire, but the wheel rim.  So, something to truly be aware of.

Oh yeah!  Lookie here.  We have a four wide scrap for position.  AF Corse GTE-Am Ferrari vs. DragonSpeed and Jota LMP2's and the Alpine Hypercar!  This is massive!  The Alpine makes the move with little trouble.  Sean Gelael moves around Ben Hanley as well.  This is for sixth in class.  This is four classes with the LMP2 Pro-Am class.  One of these LMP2 cars has only one working taillight and that could be troublesome because it wasn't long ago in international endurance racing the rules stipulated you had to use both working lights on both sides of the car.  The headlights and the taillights, just the same.  Gelael is back on the button, finding pace after his dust up with the #98 Aston Martin that we saw earlier.

Hanley is passed by Gelael because he couldn't turn into the corner and that door was wide open on it's hinges.  That's the opposite of slamming the door in someone's face.  Rather, it was left ajar and the other chap just waltzes right through.  Hit your braking point but hit your apex.  If you don't hit the apex of the corner, you can't put power down evenly, and you are a sitting duck.  GTE-Am pit stops as we see Egidio Perfetti and Francesco Castellaci both in the lane for service.  Paul Dalla Lana should move to the front of the queue in GTE-Am.  Ben Keating also is in the pit lane with Aston Martin #33.  

We have Sara Bovy pitting and Christian Ried, too.  Francois Perodo, we hear from World Endurance roving pit reporter Duncan Vincent, was really plagued by heat in the car in the dry, yet hot atmosphere of the desert here in Bahrain.  It's a dry heat, but it's still heat.  It is harder to take track position than it is to hold onto it.  Now we see Tomonobu Fujii in the lead of LM GTE-Am, his co-drivers being Satoshi Hoshino and Andrew Watson.  Fujii is in the pit lane now.  Dalla Lana stayed out.  Fujii san stayed out.  Why did Keating pit?  Well, both D'station and TF Sport cars are fueled at the TF Sport garage, and don't want to double stack because they will lose heaps of time if they do.

Driver change as Andrew Watson is getting in.  Gianmaria Bruni brings Porsche #91 to the pit lane.  Kevin Estre has opportunity to do one more lap on his fuel.  Well, well.  We also have a battle simmering in LMP2.  WRT passes Intereuropol and the #22 United Autosport Oreca runs ahead of these two.  Alex Brundle is catching Ferdinand Habsburg.  But, we believe that WRT and United Autosport only took fuel on their most recent visits to the pit lane.  Intereuropol changed drivers and on driver changes you always put fresh tires onto the car.  Porsche #91 in the lane as is Ferrari #51.  

The tires make the difference because the fresh tires on #34 have far more performance that than tired tires (pun completely intended there, look), on the #31 machine.  Alex Brundle is fourth and the leading Toyota is about to put a lap on these LMP2 boys.  Phil Hanson gets balked behind Satoshi Hoshino.  A touch there?  Nope.  Hanson and Brundle are running close in terms of lap times although Hanson has been on a far longer driving stint thus far than has Brundle.  Inter Europol are delivering not just in the World Endurance Championship, but in the European Le Mans Series too.  

Kevin Estre is in the lane as well with tires and a clean windscreen.  Paul Dalla Lana is in the lane so this means Satoshi Hoshino takes the lead ahead of Ben Keating as the Aston Martin freight train rolls on in GTE-Am.  Aston Martin 1-2 after the first stint and we could see a 1-2-3.  Thomas Flohr who has taken over Ferrari #54 has other ideas.  We have Thomas Flohr now right behind Ben Keating as the #98 is down the order behind Alessio Rover now with Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian, at the controls.  We watch Paul Dalla Lanna taking a long drink, and man oh man, does he need it.  It's a dry heat in the desert, but it is scorching hot work out there!

He's got an ice pack down the back of his neck.  In the heat like this you want to have ice on your back and on your wrists of all places where those sweat glands are.  Paul Dalla Lana says "man, that was hot!"  Truly, mate.  Driving a race car, a sports car in an endurance event, it isn't for sissies.  Having your feet in a bucket of ice water is another good trick because the floorboards on these cars, especially the front engine ones, can be steaming, blazing hot.  A front engine car is not your pal in these hot conditions.  It's like driving a giant furnace.

35 laps on the board, completed by the leading #8 Toyota.  118 miles.  There's a long way to go.  But as mentioned, this race will be covered all in the daylight hours, in spite of how tough it is.  The 8 Hours of Bahrain next weekend, will be longer in duration, but will be slightly less stressful.  Racing Team Nederland now lead overall and in the Pro-Am division, 34 laps into their race, so just a lap behind the Toyota's.  In GTE-Pro it is Porsche GT Team with a 1-2 ahead of the two Ferrari's and they are a lap further down on 33 circuits while in GTE-Am on 32 laps it is D'Station leading TF Sport in an Aston Martin 1-2 currently.  

We are seeing a lot of the battles we expected but some cars are interlopers who did not qualify as well.  Alex Brundle got four green tires on his most recent pit stop and if he can manage them and make sure they don't wear out, he'll be the class leader when his stint ends and he hands the car either to Jakub Smiechowski or Renger van der Zande.  We can also confirm Ferdinand Habsburg runs ahead of Phil Hanson at this moment.  Hanson, on a full fuel load, he is struggling a wee bit.  No tires taken for United on their most recent stop, so they are on the back foot just a wee bit.  Giedo van der Garde, the Dutchman leads LMP2 Pro-Am.  No tires taken either at WRT.

There's still a long, long way to go.  The whole car is getting a thrashing and so are the drivers and the tires.  The tires are not on rails either.  Keep the car from moving around, a car with 800 horsepower than weighs 900 kilograms.  Satoshi Hoshino continues to lead GTE-Am while Ben Keating is second.  Keating stayed aboard the #33 Aston Martin and is doing a double stint.  Tomonobu Fujii ran very well in his first stint, and the customer teams are proving themselves.  Fujii says the stint was a tough one and they moved up pretty quickly.

He got it into the lead of the class from tenth in the field which is amazing.  So, we have a scrap on our hands in LMP2 between Alex Brundle at Intereuropol and Loic Duval at RealTeam.  Brundle will likely do a double and let Jakub Smiechowski run a single stint.  Giedo van der Garde leads LMP2 and leads the Pro-Am portion of the class right now.  Takeshi Kimura too, has Alessio Rovera putting a lap on him.  Alex Brundle is now 1.3 seconds faster than Giedo van der Garde.  van der Garde leads by 11 seconds but the gap is shrinking.  They will pit in LMP2 in seven or so laps and the gap will be falling.  So we will have to really look at that and see what the scoop is.

Giedo van der Garde is serenely cruising, managing his tires, and he does not have any traffic to deal with.  We are seeing now where a tire, or swt of tires that has run a double stint, is very likely in it's sweet spot.  The tires are begging for mercy but hanging in there.  1:57 deadf for Giedo van der Garde, and Alex Brundle at 1:56.3.  Brundle has four fresh tires.  Now, Giedo van der Garde ran a 1:53.5 on lap two.  But for comparison, the lap times now are dropped down to 1:58 in that range.  So, that is a massive difference, five seconds, between a fresh tire that still has an edge on it, and a tire that is used up and becoming pretty ratty at this point.

It's going to be hard to gauge everybody's strategy all at the same time.  High Class Racing are in the pit lane and Robert Kubica takes over from Anders Fjordbach.  They might just fix the damaged dive plane or put a whole new nose section on there.  Yup.  They will change the nose and then put four tires on this car.  Toyota swapping again.  Mike Conway gets on the horn to the team and they confirm, "we will swap at turn one."  The two Toyota's have to get past the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the hands of Mike Wainwright, first.  Bish, bash, bosh.  So, Conway can hit the afterburners and Sebastien Buemi has to stay within "DRS" range as it is in Formula 1.

Formation flying for Toyota, leading the Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre by 16 seconds after the Alpine had power trouble and had to do a recycle of the system.  What is interesting is that the Alpine is within range of the two Toyota's.  We've done the run now for a cup of tea.  Everyone ought to be enjoying a cup this time of the morning anyway.  So, we move on to our next discussion topic, which is stint lengths.  Minimum drive time for Am rated driver in a 6 hour event like this one is an hour and a half.  Scratch that.  It's an hour and 15 minutes, mate.  Ben Keating has done his minimum drive time for the day.  He is still second, catching Satoshi Hoshino to take the lead in class at a second a lap.  Wow!  That's bonkers!

Hang on a second.  We've got some clarification to do on drive time, stints and the like.  Bronze drivers in GTE-Am and for Silver drivers is an hour and 45 minutes before Ben Keating is done and dusted for the day and he can chill out for the rest of the race.  Check this out.  Side by side action there with the two Rosso Corsa AF Corse Ferrari's.  #51 now leads #52.  Alessandro Pier Guidi goes ahead of Miguel Molina.  The team wants to make sure they are in the right positions for scoring points during this race.  Hence all the swapping around that we see from time to time.  

Cetilar Racing in GTE-Am, in the #47, Roberto Lacorte is inside the spot for a full stint to finish his drive time.  But they are out of sequence on fuel.  The car will need a splash and a dash near the end of the race no matter who is driving.  Roberto Lacorte is getting his drive time out of the way now I suspect and we still haven't seen Antonio Fuoco or Giorgio Sernagiotto yet.  The Toyota's play through the GTE traffic and Mike Conway leads by merely one second over Brendon Hartley.  Brendon Hartley has taken over Toyota #8 from Sebastien Buemi.  Mike Conway's job now is to open the gap over Brendon Hartley and keep his Kiwi teammate at bay.  We've discussed before, but if you don't know what a Kiwi is, that is someone from New Zealand.

Conway needs the traffic to break well for him while he needs it to hold up his Toyota teammate.  The two Am contenders they will be moving past shortly are Egidio Perfetti and Sara Bovy, a couple names we've mentioned already in this race for the Project 1 Porsche, the Mentos sponsored entry because Perfetti is the magnate, the boss behind that candy company, and Bovy is aboard the #85 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE, the car of "the Iron Dames", their three lady drivers.  Speaking of #60, the sister Iron Lynx Ferrari gets completely dusted by the #777 D'station Aston Martin.  The two Aston Martin's lead GTE-Am.  While the #60 machine scored the class pole, they are two laps down at this moment.

Kevin Estre is told that the window is open a short while for a fuel only pit stop at Porsche.  This is for in case of a safety car or a Full Course Yellow, you know where your strategy is so you don't fall behind the eight ball.  Teams have to guess how long a Full Course Yellow would be, so that they are able to box without losing time.  Don't get stuck behind the Ferrari because then they'll be in a world of pain.  The LMP2 third place battle is simmering as we watch Loic Duval mightily holding off Ferdinand Habsburg.  Duval is hanging on by his fingernails and needs new boots ASAP.  WRT, same deal.  So this is going to be squeaky, squeaky time for both of those guys if their tires hold out even.  

Soon we will see Frits van Eerd aboard the #29 Racing Team Nederland car as he is limbering up in the pit garage, limbering up the throttle foot.  There's lots of clag from the tires on the outside line and Habsburg looked like he might have caught some of it.  That will stick to the tires, to the slick tires, and make the handling on the car evil.  All that balled up rubber will be like driving on ice.  Alex Brundle is running two and a half seconds slower than Giedo van der Garde even though they are right together on the road in your picture.  van der Garde might not move immediately, but he can't fight this forever and will have to let Brundle through.

We are pretty sure Alex Brundle will stay in for a double stint.  At RealTeam, Loic Duval will hand over to one of his team mates.  Robin Frijns will take over at WRT.  van der Garde lets Brundle through an Giedo van der Garde needs to not burn his tires off.  Ferdinand Habsburg has gone to third dropping Loic Duval to fourth while Esteban Garcia is getting set to change into the #70 car.  Some of these drivers race in both European Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship for two separate teams, which makes it extremely confusing for those of us reporting on these races.

Petit Le Mans, the final race of the IMSA season, s also coming up very soon.  We see a lead change in GTE Am between two of the Aston Martin's.  Ben Keating takes the lead from Satoshi Hoshino.  Good to hear, from Misano, Italy, IMSA President John Doonan is tuned in to this broadcast of the World Endurance Championship.  Doonan is at Misano World Citcuit in Italy this weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals.  2023 sees convergence, and the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Pit stop time for #34 from the LMP2 lead.  Frits van Eerd will be next into the Racing Team Nederland.

Another anniversary we will celebrate in 2023, will be the 50th anniversary, the golden anniversary of Oreca.  Sean Gelael is in the lane and Tom Blomqvist should take over.  Frits van Eerd will take over before Job van Uitert will be in for a few stints.  Car #28, the LMP2 pole sitter is in and out of the lane while Roberto Gonzalez is still driving the #38 Jota Sport entry.  Into the lane now, the #29 machine.  Tom Blomqvist is now indeed in the #28 car.  WRT and Jota are significantly quicker than everybody else in the LMP2 class.  Ben Keating has cleared away from Satoshi Hoshino to the tune of 6.6 seconds and now, Hoshino san, look, has his hands full with Alessio Rovera!

Rovera moves to second in GTE-Am.  That is the difference between a professional driver and a gentleman driver.  #70 has pitted and now Antonio Felix Da Costa, the Portuguese driver is at the wheel of the #38 car.  Roberto Gonzalez shall drive another stint later on in the motor race.  Yikes!  That's lurid spin very early into the corner for one of the Proton Competition Porsche's!  That's #88 on the downshift into the turn.  Those tires will be flat spotted and maybe come off the Porsche in the shape of cubes!  Now, warning flag displayed for Toyota #8.  

Brendon Hartley is warned about abusing track limits.  He will have to go the stewards perhaps.  He will have been warned in the car about which specific corner he will have overused.  So, Giedo van der Garde says it is extremely hot and the team has been struggling with pace through practice and qualifying, but is now running well.  He had a good fight with teammate Loic Duval.  His ability to overtake has worked well in his stint.  Giedo van der Garde has done very well and had great judgment with working through the opening stint laps.  Alex Brundle resumes in the lead of LMP2 with United Autosport in the lane.  Intereuropol are investing in engineering and strategy.  We've got a battle in LMP2 that is hot and heavy at the moment.

We have a quick glimpse at the half second margin between the two factory GTE Pro Porsche's of Kevin Estre in #92 being followed by Gianmaria Bruni in #91.  Albuqerque, Blomqvist, Da Costa, and more in LMP2.  Estre and Bruni want a 1-2 in this race for Porsche.  Ferrari dropped a lot in the first stint and are stabilizing the gap, halfway through the second stint.  Ferrari are running gentler, or, Porsche are managing the gaps at this point.  Alessandro Pier Guidi now third.  Nico Lapierre pits the Alpine.  Also, we welcome a new driver to the FIA WEC.  Indian driver Kush Maini is in the race, brother of Arjun Maini who is a regular in the European Le Mans Series.  Kush Maini sharing with Oliver Webb and Miro Konopka.

Alpine in the lae for four tires and fuel and Andre Negrao into the car.  He will duble stint now that he is in the car.  Nico Lapierre has finished his stint.  We see a pass for position in LMP2 as Esteban Garcia is passed by Filipe Albuquerque.  As the aerodynamics come off the car, it is harder to brake and turn the car.  Some corners are tougher like the downhill hairpin in turns nine and ten and a faster version, turn 13.  Albuquerque pulling away, and Tom Blomqvist also passes by Esteban Garcia.  Robin Frijns passes Frits van Eerd for second spot in LMP2.

Get cleanly past another car.  Robin Frijns told a story about the last lap of Le Mans.  Frijns had Tom Blomqvist bearing down on him, thought he was battling for second place across the start/finish line, passed leader Yifei Ye, who was stationary.  He knew the Toyota's were going slow for a photo finish and clipped a Porsche and had to avoid the flagman waving the checkered flag.  Wow!  Robin Frijns was quicker last time by, than both Toyota's in hot pursuit of Alex Brundle.  Not much in it between the two AF Corse Ferrari's owned by Amato Ferrari, no relation ot the legendary automaker.  The two Porsche's are within a second of each other.  With the very hot turbulent air here in Bahrain, you don't want to be too close to the car in front.

You will only overheat the engine, the tires, and the brakes.  Satoshi Hoshino aboard the D'station Racing Aston Martin is warned about track limits.  Satoshi Hoshino is hanging on well in GTE-Am.  We have seen one car use the less well ranked driver time for the #44 ARC Bratislava car.  Miro Konopka, the Bronze ranked pilot has done his drive time and we now see Silver rated debutant Kush Maini in that car.  In LMP2, a double stint isn't enough.  They have another 15 or so minutes to do before the final hour.  A professional driver will be in for a double stint.  We will have a driver change soon, for each of the factory Porsche's.  So, Michael Christensen will replace Kevin Estre and Richard Lietz will take over from Gianmaria Bruni.  Both are suited and booted right now.

Alessandro Pier Guidi may very well want to do a triple stint.  He will do the lion's share of driving compared to James Calado.  Pier Guidi has a warning for track limits.  GR Racing and Project 1 change places in GTE Am and Ben Barker, is now at the wheel of Porsche 911 RSR-19 #86.  Mike Wainwright has done a double stint from the start.  Egidio Perfetti will go to the end of his stint and same with Ben Keating.  Perfetti and Keating will have both done their drive time.  Felipe Fraga will be next aboard the #33 Aston Martin.

A number of drivers will have completed their minimum time in the Am class including Sara Bovy, Ben Keating, Thomas Flohr, Christian Ried, Takeshi Kimura, all of them will have done their minimum drive time.  The Alpine whistles past the AF Corse Ferrari battle.  Alpine are over a minute and a half off the lead of the Toyota's.  Mike Conway is now nine and a half seconds ahead of Brendon Hartley.  He cannot risk having another warning for track limits.  That's 13 seconds gained in this stint by Mike Conway alone on the same tire strategy without track limits penalties.  Plus, he has been half a second faster per lap!  Holy mackerel!  Antonio Felix Da Costa in LMP2 is chasing down Esteban Garcia.  Garcia, the minnow, Da Costa, the shark.

This scrum is on for sixth spot in LMP2.  Brundle on older tires is four seconds slower than Frijns on new tires.  1:58.4 and 1:58 dead for Brundle.  How about this, though.  Frijns at 1:54.6 and 1:54.3!  Those are some stonking times from the Dutchman!  He is taking no prisoners today!  Brundle has been reaping rewards.  Track position is critical and we say it all the time.  It is far harder to take the lead than it is to defend it.  That's for dead sure.  Sophia Floresch has moved ahead of Henrik Hedman in the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca.  We see DragonSpeed's mascot, a bobblehead of Evil Knievel.  That is their lucky charm at every race they compete in.  

DragonSpeed and Richard Mille Racing run ninth and tenth in an 11-car LMP2 field.  Good battle underway for the LM GTE-Am lead.  This is the #98 Aston Martin in the hands of Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian, chasing the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Italian Alessio Rovera.  Augusto Farfus is really pushing hard, trying hard to catch Alessio Rovera.  Ben Keating has completed his stint.  He and Felipe Fraga have completed stints and now, Dylan Pereira is at the wheel of the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin, the only driver from Luxembourg in this race.  His day job is racing Porsche Supercup.  Many teams and drivers have come from Luxembourg.

There was a double yellow flag at turn eight which is now removed.  So, someone spun, or one of the bollards got smashed again.  Over the brow, sweeping downhill, how do they get to the apex at full racing speed, said with a mouthful of black licorice jellybeans, we can say, they don't.  Once the tires are knackered, you are liable to make a mistake.  #98 is slithering around on worn out rear tires oversteering out of the corner and mashing the throttle to get down the straightaway.  Alessio Rovera continuing to lead GTE Am with Augusto Farfus right on his six.  Satoshi Hoshino holds down third place, nine seconds ahead of Thomas Flohr in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.

Kush Maini in the meantime, is equaling frontrunning pace in LMP2 in the 1:55 range.  Ben Keating is proud of TF Sport and 4 Horsemen Racing.  He knew he had a better car than what they qualified with.  They had a hard time on a one lap qualifying run, but the tires hold up on lap time through the stint.  You have to be in the fight to have the opportunity.  Keating has faith in his co-drivers, Felipe Fraga and Dylan Pereira.  The differences between the cars are very slight.  The designing aspect of GTE/GT3, or LMP2, the rules boundaries are so small that the cars are very close.  Ben Keating has driven a ton of GT cars through his career and he says they are all fairly similar.

We see Toyota #7 now in the pit lane.  We see Mike Conway get into the car I believe.  Ben Keating, he drives his tail off, but, even when he is hot and exhausted and the team asks if he can go back into the car he says, "yes."  We might just see Ben Keating staying consistent for next year on manufacturers and staying at Aston Martin after swapping between I think it was something like seven different cars in the last seven years, not only in the World Endurance Championship, but also in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship if I am right.  There he has driven in both LMP2 and the GT Daytona class which uses GT3 spec cars.

The battle is on in LMP2 for the class lead!  Alex Burndle vs. Robin Frijns.  Toyota #7 in the pit lane, too, look.  Mike Conway pitted with a 20 something second advantage in the lead, and then, we are going to see the #8 cycle through and take over in P1 for the time being.  Jose Maria Lopez is now onboard the #7.  "Pechito" the Argentinian, will race a full double stint.  Lopez is 2.7 seconds now ahead of Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, at the wheel of the #36 Alpine.  Currently, nearing the end of the second hour, Toyota #8 has run 60 laps, 202 miles, so just over 200 miles completed in this race. 

Car #21, the DragonSpeed entry, must repair a rear taillight at the next pit stop.  Rear taillight.  It's almost redundant, isn't it?  Swedish driver Henrik Hedman is at the wheel of the DragonSpeed Oreca presently.  Maybe they will change the whole rear tail section.  So, Toyota #8 hits pit lane and we see debris on the road, right at the separation line, the white blend line between pit lane and the track.  This could very well induce a Full Course Yellow and a safety car.  A driver change in Toyota #8.  Kazuki Nakajima will get in.  So, their strategy at Toyota #8 is to single stint drivers.  Full Course Yellow, in 15 seconds.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Full Course Yellow.  Full Course Yellow.

Toyota will be going for tires.  We need to find out how that chunk of debris got where it is.  That looks like a dive plane, a chunk of aluminum or carbon fiber or something with a flat shape and sharp edges.  Ah.  The engine cowling cover has blown off the D'station Aston Martin, the #777 car.  Somebody has probably run over that.  OK.  Check that.  It's the boot lid, the trunk lid of that Aston Martin, and the Ferrari passes by and obliterates it.  Since #7 is not running at full speed, this will give a free pit stop, effectively to the sister #8 Toyota.  

#7 has gone from having a 20 second advantage, to now being 30 seconds behind and having to play catch up.  Nope.  Wait.  That's not the case.  The #8 spent longer time in the lane and is now third, 20 seconds behind the Alpine.  Holy smokes!  The confusion is how could he have lost ground when everyone else is trundling around at 80 clicks behind the safety car?  That's impossible.  We will just have to wait for timing and scoring to update as we see pit action for both GTE Am leading cars, the #98 Aston Martin and the #83 Ferrari.  Both GTE Pro leading Porsche's pit as well, Kevin Estre and Gianmaria Bruni.  

Driver changes at Porsche while Henrik Hedman stays in the DragonSpeed LMP2 car.  Ferrari's will pit too.  Robin Frijns at WRT who just took over the lead in LMP2 from Alex Brundle is only halfway through a stint.  This is getting very interesting.  We could see some spicy action in the next hours of this race and after the conclusion of the next one, we will be halfway home.  Augusto Farfus has gotten out of the #98 Aston Martin.  He didn't even run a full stint.  That is strange.  Half a stint for the Am drivers is being called for on strategy here.