Peugeot Totalenergies keep up leading pace in WEC second practice

Peugeot Totalenergies continued their impressive debut outing at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) after setting the pace for the second successive Free Practice this evening at the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The #93 crew of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne steered their Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar to the top of the timesheet in the day’s second 90-minute session, held in cooler conditions under the bright floodlights at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

After placing first in the opening run under the afternoon sun, the Di Resta-Jensen-Vergne trio posted a best lap time of one minute 49.613 seconds in 39 laps of work.

They were less than a hundredth-of-a-second quicker than Hypercar title contenders Toyota Gazoo Racing and Alpine Elf Team.

Toyota’s #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were 0.045 seconds off the leaders’ pace in their Toyota GR010 Hybrid, while Alpine’s Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson were third 0.077s back.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez followed in fourth overall 0.160s from first, while the other Hypercar of Peugeot Totalenergies—featuring Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller—finished eighth on the classification with a 2.534s gap from the top.

Leaders in the LMP2 class were the AF Corse #83 crew of Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen in their Oreca 07-Gibson with a fastest lap of 1:51.787.

The LMGTE Pro class saw the Porsche GT Team duo of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen in their #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 take the frontrunners’ position with a fastest lap of 1:57.192, while Team Project 1’s #46 trio of Mikkel Pedersen, Matteo Cairoli and Nicolas Leutwiler set the pace amongst the LMGTE Am runners with a fastest time of 1:59.717 also in a Porsche 911 RSR-19.