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Rachit Thukral

Bahrain WEC: Toyota surges ahead of Peugeot in final practice

Peugeot had set the pace in the Hypercar class on Thursday with its pair of 9X8 LMH cars, but Toyota finished well clear of its French rival in the last on-track session prior to qualifying, locking out the top two spots on the timesheets.

Mike Conway completed a qualifying simulation at the beginning of the 60-minute session that yielded a best time of 1m48.384s, which was a full 1.3s quicker than what Peugeot’s Paul di Resta had managed in much cooler conditions in FP2.

It put the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid 0.364s ahead of the sister #8 entry driven by Brendon Hartley, with no other car breaking the 1m49s barrier during the session.

Peugeot ended up more than a second off the pace in FP3, with Gustavo Menezes leading the way in the best of the two 9X8s ahead of teammate Paul di Resta.

Ex-Formula 1 driver di Resta propelled the #93 Peugeot to fourth late in the session, leaving the sole Alpine A480-Gibson last in the five-car field.

However, Alpine did not focus on one-lap pace, with the car’s best time set by Mathieu Vaxiviere six tenths slower than what the Frenchman had managed in second practice on Thursday evening.

  • Watch all WEC races, including this weekend's 8 Hours of Bahrain, live on Motorsport.tv

The LMP2 honours went to WRT thanks to a 1m51.792s effort from Robin Frijns in the #31 Oreca, with United Autosports ending up just 0.018s adrift in second courtesy of Filipe Albuquerque.

AF Corse’s Pro-Am entry ended up third and another 0.038s adrift with Alessio Rovera at the wheel of the squad’s sole Oreca, while the championship-leading JOTA Oreca ended up fourth in the hands of Will Stevens.

Porsche completed a clean sweep in practice although on this occasion it was the #91 911 RSR-19 that topped the GTE Pro class thanks to a time of 1m57.089s set by Gianmaria Bruni.

Alessandro Pier Guidi finished 0.229s behind in the best of the two Ferrari 488 GTEs, ahead of the sister car driven by Antonio Fuoco.

Pier Guidi’s teammate James Calado suffered a left-rear puncture in the final 15 minutes of practice after he was involved in a slow-speed collision with a GTE Am Porsche while trying to navigate his way through traffic.

The championship-contending #92 Porsche was more than two seconds off the pace in fourth with Kevin Estre driving solo in the session, while Corvette again ended up last with Tommy Milner at the wheel of its C8.R.

Nicolas Leutwiler put the Project 1 Porsche on top in GTE Am ahead of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci, while Christian Ried finished third in the best of the two Dempsey Proton 911s.

Bahrain WEC - FP3 results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'48.384  
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'48.748 0.364
3 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'49.535 1.151
4 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'50.279 1.895
5 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'50.328 1.944
6 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.792 3.408
7 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.810 3.426
8 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.848 3.464
9 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.973 3.589
10 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Ireland Ryan Cullen
France Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.988 3.604
11 9 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.151 3.767
12 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Switzerland Mathias Beche
United Kingdom Richard Bradley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.260 3.876
13 28 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.382 3.998
14 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.677 4.293
15 35 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.506 5.122
16 23 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.885 5.501
17 1 France Lilou Wadoux
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.403 6.019
18 45 United States Steven Thomas
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.523 6.139
19 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.623 6.239
20 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.089 8.705
21 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'57.318 8.934
22 52 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'57.699 9.315
23 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'59.814 11.430
24 64 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 2'00.005 11.621
25 46 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.079 11.695
26 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.356 11.972
27 77 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.372 11.988
28 56 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.552 12.168
29 33 United States Ben Keating
Portugal Henrique Chaves Jr.
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.577 12.193
30 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.062 12.678
31 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.380 12.996
32 21 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.409 13.025
33 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.600 13.216
34 71 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.805 13.421
35 88 United States Fred Poordad
United States Patrick Lindsey
Belgium Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.877 13.493
36 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.346 13.962
37 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'02.386 14.002
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