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 | ||||||
Related video
Bahrain WEC: Kobayashi puts #7 Toyota on top in FP2
Bahrain WEC: Hartley beats Kobayashi to pole in Toyota 1-2
Why F1-snubbed Davidson has no regrets in retirement
He may not have won the Le Mans 24 Hours - falling agonisingly short in 2016 - and didn't get the opportunities in Formula 1 his talents merited. But after calling time on his professional career last month, Anthony Davidson says his pride in his performances with Peugeot and Toyota in LMP1 mean more than the results he achieved
Why Le Mans didn't decide Toyota's WEC title outcome in 2021
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez scored a second successive FIA World Endurance Championship title in the #7 Toyota, as its new Le Mans Hypercar went unbeaten. Motorsport.com recaps how each of the four classes in the 2021 season were won and picks out the best LMH and GTE drivers
The unanswered questions that define WEC 2021's controversial ending
OPINION: The deeply unsatisfying ending to a brilliant World Endurance Championship GTE Pro battle in Bahrain had Ferrari provisionally heading back from the desert as the victor. But Porsche plans to appeal the outcome, which rests on a number of confusing elements that have yet to be satisfactorily explained.
How the WEC's heavyweight duel reached its controversial flashpoint
The Ferrari versus Porsche fight for the FIA World Endurance Championship's GTE Pro title had been a finely-poised affair, right up until Alessandro Pier Guidi's punt on Michael Christensen in the closing stages of the Bahrain 8 Hours handed Ferrari a provisional title, pending Porsche's appeal. Here's how the controversy played out.
The remarkable fixes Toyota used to avert another Le Mans disaster
The 1-2 finish achieved by Toyota at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours was a result that will have surprised few, given its status as pre-event favourite. But the result was anything but straightforward, as worsening fuel pressure concerns required the team's drivers and engineers to pursue "creative fixes" on the fly. Here is the full story of how it reached the end without a lengthy pit visit
The 10 greatest drives of lost legend Jo Siffert
It's 50 years since Jo Siffert was killed in his prime at Brands Hatch. The Swiss scored just two world championship wins in a Formula 1 career spent largely with privateer teams, but showed on numerous occasions in single-seaters and in sportscars with Porsche that he could beat any of the best drivers of his era given the right equipment.
Inside the Le Mans finish too barmy for Hollywood
Team WRT has been at the forefront of GT racing for years and made a successful move to prototypes for 2021, capped by an LMP2 win on its Le Mans debut. It could've been even better had the race been one lap shorter, when its cars ran 1-2, but the stranger-than-fiction reality has spurred the team to reach greater heights.
Why Toyota's Le Mans victory was not as simple as it looked
Toyota scored its fourth Le Mans 24 Hours victory and a 1-2, with the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez beating the #8. But although it looked straightforward from the outside, Toyota faced serious problem that had to be solved with some quick-thinking and ingenuity.