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