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WEC Bahrain

WEC Bahrain: #7 Toyota tops wind-delayed, rain-hit first practice

The two Toyotas led the way in an interrupted first session of practice for Saturday’s World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain. 

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastien Buemi ended up 1-2 in their respective Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercars, setting their times straight after a 45-minute stoppage in Free Practice 1 for the Bahrain 8 Hours. 

The red flag resulted from a loose advertising hoarding being blown onto the track by high winds and then attention to banners elsewhere around the Bahrain International Circuit. 

Buemi had been fastest before the break with a 1m49.976s, which he improved to a 1m49.960s straight after the resumption. 

Kobayashi then went almost exactly a tenth faster with a 1m49.856s to end up quickest. 

The four Porsche 963 LMDhs in the WEC Hypercar field filled out positions three to six, the two Penske-run factory cars sandwiched between the two customer entries. 

Gianmaria Bruni was fastest of the Porsche pack in third place with a 1m50.290s set immediately after the stoppage aboard Proton Competition’s car. 

Laurens Vanthoor was just three hundredths behind in the first of the Penske cars with a 1m50.328s, while Michael Christensen was less than a tenth behind on 1m50.403s in the US team’s other entry. 

Will Stevens took sixth aboard the Jota Porsche on 1m50.507s.

The solo factory Cadillac V-Series.R run by Chip Ganassi Racing was seventh courtesy of a 1m50.542s from Alex Lynn 

Ferrari took eighth and ninth in the FP1 classification, James Calado’s 1m51.482s aboard the best of the 499P LMHs shading Miguel Molina’s 1m51.722s in the sister car. 

The two Peugeot 9X8 LMHs ended up 10th and 11th in the hands of Nico Muller and Paul di Resta ahead of the Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH with Esteban Guerrieri driving. 

FP1 had been declared wet on its resumption as a result of spots of rain reported at handful of corners. 

The session was quickly extended to its full 90-minute duration to take account of the stoppage, but the rain intensified with just over half an hour. 

This brought the entire 36-car field into the pits, with only a handful of cars returning to a wet but drying track for the final minutes. 

Filipe Albuquerque was quickest in LMP2 for the United Autosports squad after trading fastest times with Gabriel Aubry in Vector Sport ORECA-Gibson 07. 

Albuquerque got down to a 1m54.100s, which gave him a margin of more than half a second over Aubry’s beset of 1m54.654s. 

Ferdinand Habsburg took third for WRT ahead of Oliver Rasmussen in Jota’s LMP2 entry. 

The TF Sport-run D’Station Aston Martin Vantage GTE ended up quickest in GTE Am with Tomonobu Fujii’s hands. 

The Japanese driver’s 1m59.516s was just six thousandths ahead quicker than Daniel Serra’s best in the Kessel Ferrari 488 GTE.

Second practice for the Bahrain race is due to start at 17:30 on Thursday.

WEC Bahrain - FP1 results:

 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Argentina J. Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 35

1'49.856

  177.352
2
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 39

+0.104

1'49.960

0.104 177.184
3
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 Switzerland N. Jani Italy G. Bruni United Kingdom H. Tincknell Porsche 963 22

+0.434

1'50.290

0.330 176.654
4
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 24

+0.472

1'50.328

0.038 176.593
5
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 United States D. Cameron Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 24

+0.547

1'50.403

0.075 176.473
6
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 Portugal A. Felix da Costa United Kingdom W. Stevens China Y. Yifei Porsche 963 35

+0.651

1'50.507

0.104 176.307
7
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn United Kingdom R. Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R 22

+0.686

1'50.542

0.035 176.251
8
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 21

+1.626

1'51.482

0.940 174.765
9
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 17

+1.866

1'51.722

0.240 174.390
10
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 France L. Duval United States G. Menezes Switzerland N. Müller Peugeot 9X8 24

+2.015

1'51.871

0.149 174.157
11
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 United Kingdom P. di Resta Denmark M. Jensen France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 18

+2.361

1'52.217

0.346 173.620
12
FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR
4 Argentina E. Guerrieri France T. Vautier Australia R. Briscoe Vanwall Vandervell 680 32

+3.064

1'52.920

0.703 172.539
13
United Autosports LMP2
22 United Kingdom F. Lubin United Kingdom P. Hanson Portugal F. Albuquerque Oreca 07 20

+4.244

1'54.100

1.180 170.755
14
VECTOR SPORT LMP2
10 Ireland R. Cullen Liechtenstein M. Kaiser France G. Aubry Oreca 07 34

+4.798

1'54.654

0.554 169.930
15
TEAM WRT LMP2
31 Indonesia S. Gelael Austria F. Habsburg Netherlands R. Frijns Oreca 07 34

+4.828

1'54.684

0.030 169.885
16
Jota Sport LMP2
28 Denmark D. Heinemeier Hansson Brazil P. Fittipaldi Denmark O. Rasmussen Oreca 07 31

+5.118

1'54.974

0.290 169.457
17
PREMA RACING LMP2
63 France D. Pin Italy M. Bortolotti Russian Federation D. Kvyat Oreca 07 30

+5.206

1'55.062

0.088 169.327
18
Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2
36 France M. Vaxiviere France J. Canal France C. Milesi Oreca 07 29

+5.219

1'55.075

0.013 169.308
19
PREMA RACING LMP2
9 Romania F. Ugran Netherlands B. Viscaal United States J. Correa Oreca 07 34

+5.275

1'55.131

0.056 169.226
20
TEAM WRT LMP2
41 Portugal R. Andrade Poland R. Kubica Switzerland L. Deletraz Oreca 07 29

+5.392

1'55.248

0.117 169.054
21
United Autosports LMP2
23 United States J. Pierson United Kingdom T. Blomqvist United Kingdom O. Jarvis Oreca 07 33

+5.545

1'55.401

0.153 168.830
22
INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION LMP2
34 Poland J. Smiechowski Switzerland F. Scherer Spain A. Costa Oreca 07 23

+5.846

1'55.702

0.301 168.391
23
Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2
35 Brazil A. Negrao Mexico M. Rojas United Kingdom O. Caldwell Oreca 07 33

+6.222

1'56.078

0.376 167.845
24
D'Station Racing LMGTE AM
777 Australia L. Talbot United Kingdom C. Stevenson Japan T. Fujii Aston Martin Vantage AMR 22

+9.660

1'59.516

3.438 163.017
25
Kessel Racing LMGTE AM
57 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Brazil D. Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 32

+9.666

1'59.522

0.006 163.009
26
GR RACING LMGTE AM
86 United Kingdom M. Wainwright Italy R. Pera United Kingdom B. Barker Porsche 911 RSR - 19 22

+9.694

1'59.550

0.028 162.971
27
AF Corse LMGTE AM
21
F. Dezoteux
France S. Mann Japan K. Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 22

+9.806

1'59.662

0.112 162.818
28
AF Corse LMGTE AM
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 21

+9.814

1'59.670

0.008 162.807
29
ORT BY TF LMGTE AM
25 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy United States M. Dinan Ireland C. Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR 24

+9.860

1'59.716

0.046 162.745
30
IRON DAMES LMGTE AM
85 Belgium S. Bovy Denmark M. Gatting Switzerland R. Frey Porsche 911 RSR - 19 20

+10.112

1'59.968

0.252 162.403
31
Corvette Racing LMGTE AM
33 United States B. Keating
N. Varrone
Netherlands N. Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 18

+10.206

2'00.062

0.094 162.276
32
Proton Competition LMGTE AM
77 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
France J. Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 15

+10.375

2'00.231

0.169 162.048
33
IRON LYNX LMGTE AM
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni Belgium A. Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 18

+10.389

2'00.245

0.014 162.029
34
RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE LMGTE AM
83 Argentina L. Perez Companc France L. Wadoux Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 29

+10.407

2'00.263

0.018 162.004
35
PROJECT 1 - AO LMGTE AM
56 United States P. Hyett United States G. Jeannette Italy M. Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR - 19 26

+10.542

2'00.398

0.135 161.823
36
NORTHWEST AMR LMGTE AM
98 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR 22

+10.632

2'00.488

0.090 161.702

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