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FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Bahrain - Hour Two 1:07 Kristensen is up to fourth and chasing down Jani. Mucke is now aboard the Vantage after AMR's routine stop - He emerges behind the #51 458 though but is catching Vilander very quickly. He drags by the leader on the start finish straight at the end of lap 33. After their stops meanwhile Lieb has a substantial (8 second) gap to Bertolini. Tor Graves tells WEC TV that the ADR Delta car punctured due to a suspension failure - #25 is still in the garage under repair. 1:12 A 1:47.463 from Lapierre reinforces a current pattern as the Toyota starts to pull away rapidly at the head of the field - 32 seconds now. Both Lola LMP2s pit - Pecom lead LMP2, Kaffer at the wheel - He's 8 seconds ahead of Potolicchio in #44 - Both Lotus cars pitted for driver fatigue - The gamble didn't pay off. 1:17 Chandhok gets a 30 second stop and hold in the #22 JRM HPD - That will lose the team 5th position but there are further dramas looming there - The team have no telemetry and will try to reset the system during the stop and hold - If that doesn't work they intend to bring the car in to effect a repair as without that system the car will continue to be pinged for pitlane speeding with bigger penalties for every subsequent offence. The #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan gets the meatball for non functioning rear lights. 1:25 Rob Kauffman climbed aboard the #61 last time out and he's lost the class lead to Gianluca Roda, the #88 Felbermayr Proton Porsche currently has a 30 second advantage over the #50 Corvette with Michele Rugolo bringing the Krohn 458 past Kauffman into third in class. Kristensen grabs third from Jani - Bertolini meanwhile is ahead of Lieb and third in GTE Pro. Both the ADR Delta Oreca and the #70 Vette are both back out and running - albeit way down the field. 1:30 - Kaffer pits from the LMP2 lead - He stays aboard - and Potolicchio takes the class lead but Panciatici in the #26 is right with the Venuzuelan. 1:31 Lapierre pits from the lead after a 25 lap stint, Wurz climbs aboard and Lotterer leads the race in the #1 Audi as Kristensen gets back onto the lead lap - for now! 1:32 Panciatici takes the LMP2 lead. Jani pits from fourth as the leading pair in LMP2 both pit - Jacques Nicolet leads the class with Vitantonio Liuzzi second, Kaffer, plugging on in third on his second stint. The Toyota Team manager is called to race control - The car is shown with the wrong driver ID at present - Is that the issue - or did Toyota drop the ball in the pit stop. Nicolet pits and Liuzzi leads
LMP2. Both LMP1 HPDs have pitted - Watts in for Leventis in #21, JRM though are in the garage for attention to that electronics issue. 1:44 - 1:47.274 for Lotterer on lap 55 is the fastest lap of the race so far as the German looks to pile pressure on the Austrian ahead. The 3 Rs in GTE Am meanwhile are 1,2,3 - Roda ahead in the #88 Porsche as Rees and Rugolo do battle for second - The Corvette makes it by the green Ferrari until a moment at T2 sees the Vette off the road and struggling was there contact in the now total darkness? #50 pits and the incident is "under investigation". Nicolet takes fuel only and stays aboard to retain third in LMP2. 1:49 Lotterer is gaining on the Toyota, a near 30 second gap now down to 21. Trouble for the GTE leader as the Aston appears to be trailing sparks from something dragging under the car - #97 pits, Vilander leads in #51 - Darren Turner emerges but the Vantage has lost more than 30 seconds to the new class leader. Vilander though pits soon afterwards - Fisichella climbs aboard. As we approach the end of the second hour the gap is down to 18 seconds as Lotterer continues to exert the pressure. The Aston Martin is still in trouble - still sparking and our pitlane observer telling us that something under the car is combusting rather than dragging. As the 2nd hour is completed the #24 Morgan Nissan is into the garage. |