Bahrain WEC: Senna, Nato give Rebellion back-to-back poles

Bruno Senna and Norman Nato finished on top with an average time of 1m42.979s, nearly three tenths clear of the leading #5 Ginetta of Ben Hanley and Charlie Robertson.

Senna led the way after the opening runs with a 1m42.396s, before Nato lapped in 1m43.562s to yield a 1m42.979s average for the car that won last time out in Shanghai.

Robertson was only fourth after the first runs with a 1m43.559s before Hanley's 1m42.668s jumped them ahead of the two Toyotas with a 1m43.123s average.  

Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima took third in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid with a 1m43.497s average, which was three tenths better than Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez's 1m43.842s in the sister #7 car. 

The second Ginetta, qualified by Mike Simpson and Guy Smith, took fifth nearly a second down on the Rebellion. 

United Autosports claimed pole in the LMP2 class, courtesy of an average time of 1m45.357s by Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta.

Di Resta set the fastest time in class with a 1m44.869s, which Hanson followed with a 1m45.846s aboard their Oreca 07. Their average put them them nearly three tenths up on the JOTA Sport-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry. 

G-Drive Racing claimed third with Job van Uitert and Jean-Eric Vergne on the TDS-run team's first appearance in the WEC this season. 

Porsche locked out the front row in GTE Pro, with Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz claiming pole. Their average time of 1m55.485s was just 0.060s quicker than the sister #92 Porsche of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen.

Bruni set the fastest time of the session aboard the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a 1m55.342s, which was nearly two tenths up on Christensen's 1m55.617s. 

Estre briefly jumped to the head of the timesheets with a 1m55.473s, but Lietz's 1m55.628s was just enough to put #91 back on top. 

Ferrari took third and fourth positions in class, but failed to get within half a second of Porsche. 

Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth after the first runs in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE, but James Calado did enough to give them a 1m56.087s average and vault them ahead of the sister car of Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina, who set a 1m56.318s average.

The pair of Aston Martins brought up the rear of the GTE Pro. Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen's 1m56.389s average left them nine tenths off the pace, while Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin were a further tenth back on 1m56.572s. 

Ben Keating snatched GTE Am pole after the chequered flag had fallen in the Project 1 Racing Porsche 911 RSR he qualified along with Larry ten Voorde.

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LMP Results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	1	Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'42.979
2	5	Charles Robertson Ben Hanley Jordan King	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	1'43.123	0.144
3	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'43.497	0.518
4	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'43.842	0.863
5	6	Michael Simpson Chris Dyson Guy Smith	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	1'43.887	0.908
6	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.357	2.378
7	37	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.649	2.670
8	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	1'45.953	2.974
9	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.415	3.436
10	42	Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.265	4.286
11	33	Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.323	4.344
12	36	Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'47.725	4.746
13	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'48.899	5.920
14	47	Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'49.474	6.495
View full results

GTE results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'55.485
2	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'55.545	0.060
3	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.087	0.602
4	71	Davide Rigon Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.318	0.833
5	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'56.389	0.904
6	57	Ben Keating Larry ten Voorde Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.602	2.117
7	88	Khaled Al Qubaisi Adrien de Leener Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.661	2.176
8	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'57.690	2.205
9	56	Egidio Perfetti David Heinemeier Hansson Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.863	2.378
10	86	Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.977	2.492
11	98	Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'58.002	2.517
12	90	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'58.047	2.562
13	62	Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.217	2.732
14	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.635	3.150
15	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'59.959	4.474
16	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'56.253	0.768
17	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'56.903	1.418
View full results