Ferrari AF Corse’s Alessandro Pier Guidi fronted the lead at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 8 Hours of Bahrain by the halfway point.
The #51 Ferrari 499P driver engaged in a tough fight with the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries, with the two separated by mere seconds after four hours of racing.
The race started with Sebastien Buemi, in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, retaining his lead. However, behind him, his teammate Mike Conway in the sister #7 car fell back behind Antonio Giovinazzi, onboard the #51 Ferrari 499P.
Meanwhile, the #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, the frontrunner and favourite for the drivers championship world title alongside his teammates Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, dropped from sixth to 15th amid a likely conservative approach.
And the other factory Porsche, the #5 of Matt Campbell, made contact with the #50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina at turn 4, with bodywork flying off the Ferrari, although both survived.
Conway’s third place behind Giovinazzi wouldn’t last long, as he was soon passed by Julien Andlauer in the #99 Proton Porsche 963. That third place soon became second when Buemi was tapped into a spin at turn 1 by Hiroshi Koizumi in the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, for which the Corvette driver would earn himself a 5-second penalty.
This dropped Buemi to eighth and promoted Giovinazzi to the lead, with Andlauer second and Will Stevens, in the #12 JOTA Porsche 963 third.
Stevens passed Andlauer at turn 1 and began to chase down Giovinazzi, who held a lead of around 5 seconds. When they pitted, however, quick work the JOTA crew enabled Stevens to take the lead, with a gap of around 7 seconds to the Ferrari.
While this gap initially stayed stable, Giovinazzi began to bring it down, and by the start of the next pitstop cycle, it stood at under a second. Ferrari then returned the favour, jumping the JOTA in the pits, with James Calado now in the car.
However, playing the strategy long game enabled the #5 Porsche, now driven by Michael Christensen, to jump into second, 5,5 seconds began Calado.
Norman Nato, who replaced Stevens in the #12 JOTA Porsche, is third.
Fourth and fifth are the two Toyotas, Brendon Hartley having replaced Sebastien Buemi in the #8, with Kamui Kobayashi in the #7. Sixth is Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8, with Jenson Button seventh onboard the #38 JOTA Porsche 963, and Dries Vanthoor eighth in the sister #15 BMW.
Ferrari capitalise on Toyota’s troubles
Going into the third hour, Kobayashi, in fifth, moved past his teammate Hartley to take fourth. He’d shortly after take third from Nato, and the Japanese driver set about catching Christensen for second.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing in the #7 Toyota. A mystery power-related issue reared its head, causing Kobayashi to lose third to Nato just minutes after he’d passed him. At almost half past the hour, 2 hours 25 minutes gone in the race, he slipped back to P8, behind Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW.
With Kobayashi soon back up to full speed, he re-caught and passed both D. Vanthoor and his teammate Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW.
The pit stop cycle soon started, and Toyota used this opportunity to jump Kobayashi past Hartley again, and into fourth position.
Next on his hit list in the rapid Toyota was Christensen, in the #5 Porsche, and #12 JOTA Porsche’s Nato, who’d leapfrogged the Dane in the pits.
Kobayashi made pretty short work of both of them, and he then set about catching Calado in the lead. He got the gap down to under a second at one point, but Calado is holding him at that distance excellently, with the gap fluctuating within 1-3 seconds based on traffic.
When they pitted, however, Toyota overcut Ferrari, with both cars getting four new hard tyres and new drivers – Nyck de Vries into the now leading Toyota, and Alessandro Pier Guidi into the second-placed Ferrari, with a gap of around 4 seconds a few laps after the stops. This, however, came down rapidly, with Pier Guidi catching the Dutchman in the space of about 5 laps.
He then passed the Toyota going into T15, sweeping by to re-take the lead for Ferrari. It’s not clear whether the #7 Toyota is still facing issues relating to it’s earlier power problem.
In third was the #5 Porsche of Fred Makowiecki, in his final race for Porsche.
He was around 13 seconds off Pier Guidi, with the #12 JOTA Porsche of Callum Ilott about a second back in fourth. Fifth is Raffaele Marciello, in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, a further 6 seconds off.
TF Sport commanding LMGT3
At the turn of the third racing hour in LMGT3, Rui Andrade kept the momentum going in the lead for TF Sport’s #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R.
In fact, they were seven places up from where they qualified.
After Thomas Flohr’s pre-existing form in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296, his #55 teammate Simon Mann returned the favour by overtaking him.
The #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F ran into further issues, after resolving their rear-right wheel troubles from earlier on, t
Arnold Robin parked the #78 behind the barrier at Turn 3 with only 2-hours and 22-minutes of the race completed.
Pole-sitter Josh Caygill, meanwhile, defended his fifth place from Yasser Shahin of the #91 Manthey EMA before the #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO pitted.
Tom Van Rumpuy got back into the #81 Corvette and continued the charge for TF Sport.
He led by a commanding 15 seconds on United Autosports driver Nico Costa, who took over from Caygill at the wheel of the United Autosports machine.
This gap would go onto increase up to 25-seconds during the fourth racing hour, and approaching the halfway point.
United’s other McLaren, the #59, was still in the mix and was kept towards the front of the order by James Cottingham, who yesterday lost out to pole position by 0.002 seconds.
Akkodis’ other Lexus, the #87, incurred a front-right puncture after Harry Tincknell (#99 Proton Porsche 963 Hypercar) made contact whilst overtaking him at Turn 6.
Amidst the separated gaps, there was a gripping fight for third between Andrea Castellacci (#54 Ferrari) and five-time Le Mans class winner Richard Lietz (#91 Porsche).
At the hour, Van Rompuy led in the #81 Corvette by 25-seconds on Cottingham (#59 McLaren).
Lietz resided third, having taken the position from AF Corse’s #54 Ferrari as the championship winner #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche of Joel Sturm held fifth.
Phil Oakley contributed to this report
