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:
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