Van der Linde Tops Second Bahrain Practice for BMW

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

BMW topped an FIA World Endurance Championship session for just the second time this season with Sheldon van der Linde setting the pace in second Bahrain free practice.

The South African set a 1:48.780 in the early stages of the 90-minute session in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, which kept him at the head of the leaderboard throughout.

Aston Martin continued its strong showing after topping FP1 by going second quickest, with Marco Sorensen a quarter of a second adrift of van der Linde’s time in the No. 009 Valkyrie.

Jean-Eric Vergne was third fastest for Peugeot, his early time of 1:49.201 in the No. 93 9X8 keeping him near the top of the standings.

Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi was fourth on a 1:49.342 in the best of the GR010 Hybrids, while Julien Andlauer was fifth in the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963, just a tenth adrift of the Toyota.

Ferrari made it six different manufacturers in the top six places courtesy of Antonio Giovinazzi, who posted a 1:49.465 in the No. 51 499P.

The second of the Toyotas was seventh, thanks to Brendon Hartley’s 1:49.473, and the top Cadillac was in eighth – the No 12 V-Series.R of Alex Lynn.

The rest of the top ten was completed by Tom Gamble in the second of the Astons and the lead Alpine A424 of Charles Milesi.

The customer Proton Competition-run Porsche 963 failed to set a time during the session.

In LMGT3, there were mixed fortunes for the Akkodis ASP squad. While the No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3 topped the times thanks to a 2:02.613 set by Finn Gehrsitz just over half an hour into the session, the sister No. 87 car was in strife early on.

Clemens Schmid stopped on track in the opening minutes of the session with a gearbox problem and did not set a representative lap time.

Second in class went to the Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R of Rahel Frey with a time four tenths adrift of Gehrsitz.

Third fastest was the best of the TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.Rs, with Dani Juncadella setting a 2:03.179.

Next up were the Heart of Racing Aston of Mattia Drudi – the only other driver within a second of Gerhitz’s pace – and the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Lorcan Hanafin.

FP3 for the 8 Hours of Bahrain is due to begin at 12 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET)

Source: Sports Car 365