Bahrain 8H: Ferrari regains upper hand in GTE Pro battle at halfway point

AF Corse has regained the lead in the championship-deciding battle in GTE Pro with four hours remaining in the Eight Hours of Bahrain.

The #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, currently in the hands of James Calado, leads the class ahead of the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Michael Christensen.

Ferrari had lost the lead to Porsche during an earlier full course yellow during which Porsche took the lead in class. During a later interruption during the fourth hour, however, the two cars pitted together and Calado jumped Christensen out of the pit lane.

Daniel Serra sits third in the #52 Ferrari, with the #91 Porsche of Fred Makowiecki fourth.

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The lead overall remains in the hands of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, with the #7 sister car of Kamui Kobayashi second.

The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson is still running with Matthieu Vaxiviere but five laps down after an early gearbox issue.

The LMP2 class is led by the #31 Team WRT ORECA 07-Gibson, currently being driven by Ferdinand Habsburg. The Belgian championship leaders took the lead of the race away from the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA, which led the race from the start but began to drop back when bronze-rated Frits van Eerd took the car over.

Van Eerd has dropped back to the sixth place in LMP2, but still leads the Pro/Am standings.

The #28 JOTA ORECA of Sean Gelael sits in second place, with the #22 United Autosports ORECA of Fabio Scherer in third.

In GTE Am, Cetilar Racing continues to lead the way in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with Alessio Rovera second in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Eo and Riccardo Pera third in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Porsche will drop away, however, as Pera was given a one minute stop and go penalty for putting a marshal in danger during an earlier full course yellow.

One car has retired from the race at halfway: the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche has been ruled out following a collision with the #98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR when Axcil Jefferies was at the wheel of the Porsche.