James Calado leads the 8 Hours of Bahrain with two hours gone, with the #51 Ferrari enjoying a six second lead over the #5 Porsche of Michael Christensen.
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, who started the currently-leading #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 body work 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 GT3R, 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.
Corvette lead in LMGT3
Over in LMGT3, Rui Andrade leads in the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3R. Tom van Rompuy started the car eighth but pace and quick work in the pits has enabled them to move forward and lead the race, with a 23 second gap to the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 of Nicolas Costa.
James Cottingham started the #59 McLaren second, but he’s been jumped by the leading Corvette.
In third is the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann, around 4 seconds back from Costa. The polesitting McLaren, meanwhile, of Josh Caygill, in the #95 United Autosports McLaren, currently sits fifth in class, behind Alex Malykhin in the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R.
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