Bahrain WEC: Kobayashi remains on top in final practice
Kamui Kobayashi again topped the times for Toyota in final practice for this weekend's Bahrain 6 Hours FIA World Endurance Championship round.
The Japanese driver posted the fastest time of the meeting so far with his first flying lap during a qualifying simulation at the start of the 60-minute Free Practice 3 session.
His 1m48.978s aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was just under a tenth quicker than his best from FP2 on Friday morning, a session held in cooler conditions.
Kobayashi ended up seven tenths clear of teammate Brendon Hartley in the sister Toyota.
The New Zealander didn't set a representative time on his first flying lap after a Full Course Yellow virtual safety car was called because the High Class Racing Oreca LMP2 was slow on track.
Hartley subsequently posted a 1m49.689s on his third flier on his fresh set of Michelin tyres after the track went green.
The #8 Toyota had been ready to go from the beginning of the session after a front corner and the nose were changed after Sebastien Buemi's clash with Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Lynx GTE Am class Ferrari in FP2.
The Alpine A480-Gibson LMP1 car was third fastest in the three-car Hypercar class.
Andre Negrao's posted the grandfathered P1 car's best time of the week with a 1m50.166s, which was just three hundredths quicker than Matthieu Vaxiviere managed in the Friday morning session.
Crash of #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The Britsh JOTA team maintained its monopoly of top spot in LMP2 in Bahrain, Tom Blomqvist's 1m50.696s aboard the #28 Oreca 07 putting him more than half a second clear of the pack.
Filipe Albuquerque took second in the #22 United Autosports Oreca with a 1m51.351s, while Antonio Felix da Costa was third in the second #38 JOTA entry with a 1m51.695s.
Renger van der Zande claimed fourth in the #34 Inter Europol Oreca, while Robert Kubica led the Pro/Am sub-class for the Danish High Class squad.
Neel Jani was quickest in GTE Pro for Porsche with a 1m58.230s, while Alessandro Pier Guidi was less than two tenths behind in the best of Ferraris.
Pier Guidi's 1m58.399s was nearly a second faster than the previous best from one of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos over the course of the three practice sessions, but the faster of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs was nearly two seconds slower than in FP2 on Friday morning.
Miguel Molina was third in the second of the factory Ferraris, while Gianmaria Bruni brought up the rear of GTE Pro in the other works Porsche 911 RSR run by the Manthey team.
Jaxon Evans was fastest in GTE Am for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche squad.
Qualifying for Saturday's Bahrain 6 Hours is due to start 4:30pm local time.
The qualifying for WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more information.
FP3 results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'48.978 | |
| 2 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'49.689 | 0.711 |
| 3 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'50.166 | 1.188 |
| 4 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.696 | 1.718 |
| 5 | 22 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.351 | 2.373 |
| 6 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.695 | 2.717 |
| 7 | 34 |  Jakub Smiechowski  Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.061 | 3.083 |
| 8 | 20 |  Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.208 | 3.230 |
| 9 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.477 | 3.499 |
| 10 | 31 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.499 | 3.521 |
| 11 | 29 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.546 | 3.568 |
| 12 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.708 | 4.730 |
| 13 | 1 |  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.178 | 6.200 |
| 14 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Oliver Webb  Kush Maini |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'57.445 | 8.467 |
| 15 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.230 | 9.252 |
| 16 | 51 |  Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.399 | 9.421 |
| 17 | 52 | Daniel Serra  Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.659 | 9.681 |
| 18 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.870 | 9.892 |
| 19 | 77 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.502 | 10.524 |
| 20 | 85 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.858 | 10.880 |
| 21 | 60 | Rino Mastronardi Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.987 | 11.009 |
| 22 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.987 | 11.009 |
| 23 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.024 | 11.046 |
| 24 | 88 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi Adrien de Leener Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.060 | 11.082 |
| 25 | 33 |  Ben Keating  Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.174 | 11.196 |
| 26 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.224 | 11.246 |
| 27 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.236 | 11.258 |
| 28 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.278 | 11.300 |
| 29 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.451 | 11.473 |
| 30 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.801 | 11.823 |
| 31 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.457 | 12.479 |
| View full results | ||||||
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