Bahrain 8h WEC: Hartley puts #8 Toyota top in FP1

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
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