With conditions having significantly cooled down since the opening practice in the afternoon, di Resta was able to lower teammate Jean-Eric Vergne’s FP1 benchmark by nearly a second to 1m49.613s in the final 90-minute session of the day.
The laptime, set just before the half-an-hour mark, put the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of di Resta 0.045s clear of early pacesetter Brendon Hartley in the title-contending #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
Matthieu Vaxiviere ensured all three Hypercar teams finished inside the top-three as he lapped the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson in 1m49.690s, just 0.077s down on the chart-topping Peugeot.
The Apine and the #8 Toyota crews are level on points going to this Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours finale, with the #7 Toyota that finished fourth in second practice with Mike Conway at the wheel having an outside chance at defending its 2021 title.
The second Peugeot entry propped up the five-car Hypercar field with Loic Duval setting an unrepresentative 1m52.147s lap that was only good enough for eighth in the overall order.
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The LMP2 division was again led by the Pro/Am AF Corse squad, with factory Ferrari driver Alessio Rovera taking the top spot with a best effort of 1m51.787s.
His time was two tenths quicker than his nearest rival Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports Oreca and nearly half a second up on what teammate Nicklas Nielsen had managed in FP1.
Robin Frijns put the #31 WRT Oreca third ahead of the second United Autosports entry, the #23 car driven by Alex Lynn, while Inter Europol Competition finished fifth in class thanks to a time of 1m52.279s by Alex Brundle.
The championship-leading #38 JOTA entry was classified 11th out of 14th LMP2 entries, with Will Stevens setting the crew’s quickest lap, a 1m53.178s.
The GTE Pro field was again led by Porsche thanks to a rapid 1m57.192s effort from Michael Christensen in the #92 911 RSR-19 at the beginning of the session.
James Calado was the only driver to lap within a second of Christensen’s time as he ended up a distant second in the #51 Ferrari, with Miguel Molina not too far behind him in the sister #52 488 GTE Evo.
The #51 Ferrari carries an 11-point lead over the #92 Porsche into the Bahrain 8 Hours, the last-ever race for the GTE Pro category that has been a staple of the WEC since its rebirth in 2012.
The #91 Porsche finished fourth with Richard Lietz at the wheel, while Nick Tandy’s early stint only yielded a time of 1m58.826s as Corvette was the slowest GTE Pro manufacturer for the second session in a row.
Porsche teams locked out the top three spots in GTE Am, with Matteo Cairoli quickest of all in the #46 Project 1 car ahead of the two Dempsey Proton entries driven by Harry Tincknell and Jan Heylen.
The full-course yellow was deployed twice during the first half of practice, but the session went back to green relatively quickly on each occasion.
WEC Bahrain - FP2 results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 |
 Paul di Resta  Mikkel Jensen  Jean-Eric Vergne |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.613 | |
| 2 | 8 |
 Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'49.658 | 0.045 |
| 3 | 36 |
 Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.690 | 0.077 |
| 4 | 7 |
Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'49.773 | 0.160 |
| 5 | 83 |
François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen  Alessio Rovera |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.787 | 2.174 |
| 6 | 22 |
Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.993 | 2.380 |
| 7 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.107 | 2.494 |
| 8 | 94 |
Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'52.147 | 2.534 |
| 9 | 23 |
Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.159 | 2.546 |
| 10 | 34 |
 Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle  Esteban Gutierrez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.279 | 2.666 |
| 11 | 28 |
Oliver Rasmussen  Ed Jones  Jonathan Aberdein |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.379 | 2.766 |
| 12 | 1 |
Lilou Wadoux Paul-Loup Chatin Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.435 | 2.822 |
| 13 | 9 |
Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.760 | 3.147 |
| 14 | 41 |
Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.796 | 3.183 |
| 15 | 45 |
Steven Thomas  James Allen Rene Binder |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.881 | 3.268 |
| 16 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.178 | 3.565 |
| 17 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande  Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.379 | 3.766 |
| 18 | 44 |
 Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Richard Bradley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.626 | 4.013 |
| 19 | 35 |
Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.056 | 5.443 |
| 20 | 92 |
Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.192 | 7.579 |
| 21 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.995 | 8.382 |
| 22 | 52 |
 Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.391 | 8.778 |
| 23 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.514 | 8.901 |
| 24 | 64 |
Tommy Milner Nick Tandy |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.826 | 9.213 |
| 25 | 46 |
Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.717 | 10.104 |
| 26 | 77 |
Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.859 | 10.246 |
| 27 | 88 |
Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey  Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.019 | 10.406 |
| 28 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.224 | 10.611 |
| 29 | 21 |
Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.764 | 11.151 |
| 30 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.792 | 11.179 |
| 31 | 98 |
 Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.073 | 11.460 |
| 32 | 33 |
Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.074 | 11.461 |
| 33 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'01.216 | 11.603 |
| 34 | 56 |
PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Ben Barnicoat |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'01.217 | 11.604 |
| 35 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.535 | 11.922 |
| 36 | 71 |
Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.609 | 11.996 |
| 37 | 85 |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.707 | 12.094 |
| View full results | ||||||
