Bahrain WEC: Toyota bounces back to top final practice
Toyota set the quickest time in final practice for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round in Bahrain, leading the best of the Ginettas by just over a tenth of a second.
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Having trailed both its LMP1 rivals on Thursday, the Japanese manufacturer led third practice from start to finish, courtesy of Brendon Hartley’s time of 1m44.285s in the #8 TS050 Hybrid.
Ginetta moved up to second in the final 30 minutes of the session, with Ben Hanley lapping the Sakhir circuit in 1m44.389s in the #5 G60-LT-P1.
Toyota and Ginetta were the only two teams to finish clear of the LMP2 field, as cold conditions and reported rain drops meant times were significantly slower than on Thursday.
The #6 Ginetta finished third with Guy Smith at the wheel, 2.6s off the pace, while the Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes was classified a further three tenths adrift in fourth.
The Swiss outfit’s Oreca-built R13 was consigned to the garage for the final part of the session, with both the engine cover and the front bodywork removed as mechanics frantically worked to fix an as-yet unknown technical issue.
The #7 Toyota propped up the LMP1 timesheets, Jose Maria Lopez finishing nearly 3.5s down on the sister TS050 Hybrid.
Phil Hanson put the United Autosports Oreca on top in the LMP2 class with 40 minutes to go, his time of 1m1m45.970s putting the Anglo-American team two tenths clear of the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of Will Stevens.
JOTA’s Oreca was third thanks to a time of 1m46.767s by Antonio Felix da Costa.
Andre Negrao slammed into the barriers at the exit of Turn 13 in his first flying lap, but managed to get his Signatech Alpine Oreca back to the pitlane for repairs.
Ferrari topped a session in the GTE Pro class for the first time this weekend, with Davide Rigon setting the quickest time in GTE Pro in the #71 488 GTE.
Rigon displaced the #95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim from the top 15 minutes into the session and was unchallenged for the rest of the morning.
Allesandro Pier Guidi made it two Ferraris in the top three with a time of 1m56.367s, as the two Porsches ended slowest of all in GTE Pro.
The GTE Am class was topped by Ben Barker in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche.
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Practice results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'44.285 | |
2 | 5 | Charles Robertson Ben Hanley Jordan King |
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 1'44.389 | 0.104 |
3 | 22 | Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'45.970 | 1.685 |
4 | 37 | Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'46.159 | 1.874 |
5 | 38 | Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'46.767 | 2.482 |
6 | 6 | Michael Simpson Chris Dyson Guy Smith |
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 1'46.886 | 2.601 |
7 | 1 | Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'47.190 | 2.905 |
8 | 7 | Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'47.700 | 3.415 |
9 | 42 | Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.687 | 4.402 |
10 | 29 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.584 | 5.299 |
11 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 1'49.842 | 5.557 |
12 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 1'49.857 | 5.572 |
13 | 36 | Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'50.656 | 6.371 |
14 | 33 | Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.664 | 7.379 |
15 | 71 | Davide Rigon Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.095 | 11.810 |
16 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.364 | 12.079 |
17 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.367 | 12.082 |
18 | 97 | Alex Lynn Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.460 | 12.175 |
19 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'57.221 | 12.936 |
20 | 77 | Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'57.345 | 13.060 |
21 | 98 | Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'57.359 | 13.074 |
22 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.743 | 13.458 |
23 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.264 | 13.979 |
24 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.291 | 14.006 |
25 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.381 | 14.096 |
26 | 70 | Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'58.478 | 14.193 |
27 | 90 | Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.488 | 14.203 |
28 | 88 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Adrien de Leener Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.872 | 14.587 |
29 | 57 | Ben Keating Larry ten Voorde Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.880 | 14.595 |
30 | 56 | Egidio Perfetti David Heinemeier Hansson Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.073 | 14.788 |
31 | 62 | Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.138 | 14.853 |
View full results |
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