Under the glare of the powerful Bahrain floodlights, the Swiss ace lapped some 1.1s faster than the sister No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

Porsche appeared to be working on double stinting tyres during the session rather than going for an outright quick lap. This accounted for the 1.2s deficit to the No.7 Audi’s ultimate best.

The title leading No.17 entry of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard placed third, ahead of the sister machine of Neel Jani, Romian Dumas and Marc Lieb.

Toyota were again fifth and sixth, albeit closer to the pace than in the earlier session. Alex Wurz's best in the No.2 Toyota TS 040 HYBRID was just 0.4s off the last of the Porsches.

In the LMP2 class, Pipo Derani’s early best of 1m50.029s was never beaten. The rookie Brazilian put in another impressive performance in the No.28 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan on his very first visit to the Bahrain International Circuit.

The other G-Drive Racing Ligier of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal placed fourth as they look to protect their 16-point lead and seal the LMP2 title this weekend.

There was trouble for the KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan that currently lies 16 points adrift of the No.26 G-Drive crew in the title fight. Matt Howson was forced to pull off the track in the final stages of the session with an apparent technical issue.

The LMGTE classes saw Ferrari rule the roost in each, with the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 driven by Toni Vilander and the No.72 SMP example driven by Andrea Bertolini setting the times of 1m59.402s and 2m00.866s respectively.

The evening session saw just a single Full Course Yellow after 10 minutes, when Khaled Al Qubaisi beached his Proton Porsche 911 RSR in the gravel at Turn 3.

Several cars were shown the black and white warning flag for persistent abuses of track limits at turn four. Among them were both of the Toyotas, the No.7 Audi and the KCMG ORECA.

Results: WEC 2015 Bahrain FP2

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Andre Lotterer Benoit Tréluyer Marcel Fassler	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15	1:42.133	1:42.133	37
2	Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15	1:43.291	+1.158	39
3	Mark Webber Brendon Hartley Timo Bernhard	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	1:43.360	+1.227	44
4	Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	1:43.529	+1.396	47
5	Alexander Wurz Mike Conway Stéphane Sarrazin	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	1:43.931	+1.798	47
6	Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	1:44.288	+2.155	42
7	Mathias Beche Nicolas Prost	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One	1:48.385	+6.252	29
8	Pierre Kaffer Simon Trummer	Team ByKolles	CLM P1/01	1:49.200	+7.067	29
9	Alexandre Imperatori Mathéo Tuscher Dominik Kraihamer	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One	1:49.685	+7.552	20
10	Pipo Derani Gustavo Yacaman Ricardo Gonzalez	G-Drive Racing	Ligier JS P2	1:50.029	+7.896	36
11	Matthew Howson Nick Tandy Richard Bradley	KCMG	ORECA 05	1:50.774	+8.641	29
12	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Tom Dillmann	Signatech Alpine	Alpine A450b	1:51.354	+9.221	36
13	Roman Rusinov Sam Bird Julien Canal	G-Drive Racing	Ligier JS P2	1:51.546	+9.413	34
14	Oliver Webb Chris Cumming Pierre Ragues	Team SARD Morand	Morgan LMP2 Evo '15	1:51.725	+9.592	36
15	Jonny Kane Nick Leventis Danny Watts	Strakka Racing	Gibson 015S	1:52.315	+10.182	38
16	Devi Markozov Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin	AF Racing	BR Engineering BR01	1:52.662	+10.529	36
17	David Heinemeier Hansson Ryan Dalziel Scott Sharp	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2	1:52.873	+10.740	31
18	Ed Brown Jon Fogarty Johannes van Overbeek	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2	1:53.510	+11.377	36
19	Toni Vilander Gianmaria Bruni	AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	1:59.402	+17.269	37
20	Davide Rigon James Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	1:59.486	+17.353	37
21	Frédéric Makowiecki Patrick Pilet	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	1:59.618	+17.485	37
22	Nicki Thiim Christoffer Nygaard Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:00.349	+18.216	34
23	Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway Fernando Rees	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:00.396	+18.263	34
24	Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar	SMP Racing	Ferrari F458 Italia	2:00.866	+18.733	34
25	Christian Ried Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Dempsey Racing - Proton	Porsche 911 RSR	2:00.939	+18.806	27
26	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	2:01.019	+18.886	33
27	Gianluca Roda Kristian Poulsen Paolo Ruberti	Larbre Compétition	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	2:01.369	+19.236	34
28	Jonathan Adam Darren Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:01.405	+19.272	36
29	Roald Goethe Francesco Castellacci Stuart Hall	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:02.116	+19.983	37
30	Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:02.672	+20.539	36
31	Khaled Al Qubaisi Klaus Bachler Marco Mapelli	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	2:03.103	+20.970	28
32	Emmanuel Collard Matteo Cressoni François Perrodo	AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	2:03.525	+21.392	26