Bahrain 8h WEC: Hartley puts #8 Toyota top in FP1
Brendon Hartley went quickest for Toyota in first practice for this weekend's eight-hour FIA World Endurance Championship finale in the Bahrain.
The New Zealander's quickest lap of 1m48.490s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid gave him a margin of four tenths over the championship-leading #7 sister entry in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi.
Hartley set a total of three laps at the start of the 90-minutes session that were quicker than Kobayashi's 1m48.898s mark.
The Signatech-run Alpine A480-Gibson was slowest of the three cars present in the Hypercar class for the Bahrain double-header that closes out this season's 2021.
Nicolas Lapierre was within a second of the pace in the grandfathered LMP1 car with a 1m49.479s.
Times for the cars in the Hypercar class were already quicker than in the corresponding session for last weekend's six-hour race in Bahrain.
The practice sessions for the penultimate round of the 2021 WEC were held during daylight when temperatures were higher, whereas FP1 for the Bahrain 8 Hours took place after the sun had fallen.
Only three of the eight hours of Saturday's race will take place during the day.
Swiss entrant Realteam led the way in LMP2, Norman Nato posting a 1m50.792 in its TDS Racing-run Oreca 07-Gibson.
The Frenchman ended up just three hundredths quicker than Tom Blomqvist's 1m50.820s in the best of the JOTA Orecas.
Giedo van der Garde took third in the Racing Team Nederland Oreca, also run by TDS, with a 1m51.008s, while Antonio Felix da Costa was fourth in the second JOTA entry.
Porsche ended up 1-2 in GTE Pro, Neel Jani leading the way in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 run by the Manthey team. His 1m57.657s compared with Richard Lietz's 1m58.013s in the sister car.
Neither of the factory AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos hit the track until more than 30 minutes into the session and ended up over two seconds behind the pace-setting Porsche despite a late Balance of Performance change.
Miguel Molina posted a 2m00.631s and Alessandro Pier Guidi a 2m00.677s as they brought up the rear of the WEC field behind all the GTE Am cars. Ferrari did not give a reason for the cars leaving the pits late.
Augusto Farfus was quickest in GTE Am for the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing squad. The Brazilian's 1m58.093s aboard the #98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE gave him a margin of two tenths over Matteo Cairoli in the Project 1 team's solo entry.
Practice for Saturday's Bahrain 8 Hours resumes at 9:00am local time on Friday.
Practice results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'48.490 | |
| 2 | 7 |  Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'48.898 | 0.408 |
| 3 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.479 | 0.989 |
| 4 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.792 | 2.302 |
| 5 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.820 | 2.330 |
| 6 | 29 |  Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.008 | 2.518 |
| 7 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez  Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.182 | 2.692 |
| 8 | 22 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.192 | 2.702 |
| 9 | 31 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.199 | 2.709 |
| 10 | 34 |  Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.793 | 3.303 |
| 11 | 20 |  Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.145 | 3.655 |
| 12 | 1 |  Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.385 | 3.895 |
| 13 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.252 | 4.762 |
| 14 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.815 | 5.325 |
| 15 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.657 | 9.167 |
| 16 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.013 | 9.523 |
| 17 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.093 | 9.603 |
| 18 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'58.321 | 9.831 |
| 19 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.629 | 10.139 |
| 20 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.697 | 10.207 |
| 21 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.921 | 10.431 |
| 22 | 33 |  Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.000 | 10.510 |
| 23 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.050 | 10.560 |
| 24 | 77 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.339 | 10.849 |
| 25 | 88 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi  Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.552 | 11.062 |
| 26 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.723 | 11.233 |
| 27 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.857 | 11.367 |
| 28 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.143 | 11.653 |
| 29 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.431 | 11.941 |
| 30 | 52 | Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.631 | 12.141 |
| 31 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.677 | 12.187 |
| View full results | ||||||
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