BMW topped the times in second free practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship curtain-closer in Bahrain.
Dries Vanthoor posted the fastest time in Free Practice 2 at the wheel of the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh run by the WRT squad.
He set his session best of 1m48.257s early on in the 90-minute Thursday evening session, like all the leading runners, to end just five hundredths clear of second-placed Matt Campbell in the best of the factory Porsche 963 LMDhs.
The Australian had topped the times with a 1m48.311s in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry before Vanthoor supplanted him at the head of the order.
It was the second time in two races that the improving BMW LMDh has emerged fastest in a practice session.
Vanthoor was also quickest in FP2 at Fuji in September when he and team-mates Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann went on to secure the best WEC result for the M Hybrid with second place in the race.
Ferrari took third position in FP2 on the Bahrain International Circuit with Antonio Giovinazzi aboard the #51 499P Le Mans Hypercar run by the factory AF Corse team.
The Italian’s 1m48.472s was just two tenths off the pace of the BMW.
Nyck de Vries took fourth position in the best of the Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMHs with a 1m48.647s, while Antonio Fuoco jumped to fifth at the end of the flurry of early-session quick laps in the second of the Ferraris with a 1m48.701s.
Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top six in the #8 Toyota with a 1m48.736s, which was still within half a second of the pace.
Robin Frijns claimed seventh in the second BMW ahead of the best of the customer Jota Porsches with Oliver Rasmussen at the wheel.
Proton Competition’s privateer 963 was next up in ninth in Neel Jani’s hands, while Ferdinand Habsburg completed the top 10 in the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh.
The solo Ganassi Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh was 11th with Alex Lynn at the wheel, while the championship-leading #6 Porsche was the last car within a second of the pace in 12th with Kevin Estre driving.
Daniil Kvyat took 16th in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 LMDh, and the two Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs brought up the rear of the Hypercar class order after the French manufacturer had taken FP1 honours.
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne
Photo by: Shameem Fahath
The LMGT3 class was headed by the #87 Lexus RC F GT3 run by the Auto Sport Promotion team, Esteban Masson leading the way by six tenths on 2m02.246s.
Second place went to Hiroshi Koizumi in the #82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with a 2m02.901. Francois Heriau got within a tenth of the Chevy driver to take third.
The final, one-hour practice session begins at 12:00 local time before qualifying for Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours kicks off at 16:00.