BMW M Team WRT lead WEC field in second practice under lights in Bapco Energies 8H of Bahrain at BIC

BMW M Team WRT lead WEC field in second practice under lights in Bapco Energies 8H of Bahrain at BIC

• Taichi Watarai goes quickest in second practice session of season-opening round in Porsche Carrera Cup ME

BMW M Team WRT took the top spot this evening on the practice two timesheet in the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) – the eighth and final round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

BMW‘s #20 trio of Rene Rast, Robin Frijns, and Sheldon van der Linde in their BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar set the overall pace in tonight’s 90-minute session, held under BIC’s bright state-of-the-art floodlights.

Their fastest time of 1min 48.780secs was the quickest for the day following the WEC’s two of three practices this race weekend in Sakhir.

Aston Martin Thor Team’s #009 crew of Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen, and Roman de Angelis – who had topped the times in practice one earlier in the day – followed with a best lap just 0.262secs off the pace in their Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar.

Peugeot TotalEnergies’ #93 trio of Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, and Jean-Eric Vergne were classified third 0.421s back in their Peugeot 9X8, while Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Nyck de Vries came fourth 0.562s adrift in their GR010 Hybrid contender.

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer, Mathieu Jaminet, and Laurin Heinrich in their #5 Porsche 963 Hypercar completed the top five overall and in the WEC’s top-tier class 0.638s from first place.

In the LMGT3 category, Akkodis ASP Team’s Arnold Robin, Finn Gehrsitz, and Ben Barnicoat were the second practice’s pace-setters with a best lap of 2:02.613 in their #78 Lexus RC F LMGT3. They were 0.408s quicker than the Iron Dames trio of Celia Martin, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting in their #85 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3, while TF Sport’s Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar, and Daniel Juncadella in their #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R were classified third 0.566s behind.

Completing the LMGT3’s top five were Heart of Racing Team’s Ian James, Zacharie Robichon, and Mattia Drudi (+0.746s) in their #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3, and Iron Lynx’s #60 crew of Andrew Gilbert, Lorcan Hanafin, and Fran Rueda (+1.232s) in their Mercedes-AMG LMGT3.