Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Muller blocked out the top positions in the 90-minute FP1 session aboard the pair of Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hypercars, which will be making their third start in the series in Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours season finale.
Muller, who is making his debut appearance with Peugeot this weekend, initially led the way with a 1m51.413s aboard the #94 9X8 before Vergne went nearly nine tenths quicker in the #93 with a 1m50.536s to knock him off the top spot.
The fastest Toyota GR010 HYBRID was more than a second off the ultimate pace with a 1m51.675s from Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 entry.
The Alpine-Gibson A480 was a further tenth back on 1m51.796 set by Nicolas Lapierre.
The second Toyota brought up the rear of the Hypercar class courtesy of a 1m51.917s posted by Sebastien Buemi right at the start of the session.
Peugeot’s position at the top of the times in the first track running of the Bahrain event follows further testing for the 9X8 since the previous WEC round at Fuji in September and a Balance of Performance change.
The 9X8 has been given a 12kg weight break, while the Toyotas have lost four kilowatts or 5.4bhp under the latest BoP.
The AF Corse Pro/Am entry ended up fastest in LMP2 with Ferrari factory driver Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel of the team’s ORECA-Gibson 07.
The Dane posted a 1m54.144s at the start of the 90 minutes.
The Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing ORECA took second position in class with a 1m52.335s from Charles Milesi.
The championship-leading #38 Jota ORECA took third place in Will Stevens’ hands on 1m52.389s.
Michael Christensen gave Porsche the top spot in GTE Pro; the Dane’s 1m58.025s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR gave him a margin of two tenths over the best of the Ferraris.
Antonio Fuoco got down to a 1m58.261 in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo run by the AF Corse factory team, which put him just over a tenth up on Alessandro Pier Guidi’s 1m58.398s in the sister car.
The second Porsche took fourth in class in Gianmaria Bruni’s hands and the solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R fifth with Nick Tandy driving.
Porsche’s top spot follows two so-called black-ball changes outside of the automatic system to the GTE Pro BoP for Bahrain.
Both Ferrari and Chevrolet are able to run less power at Bahrain than last time out in the WEC at Fuji.
Ben Barnicoat was quickest in GTE Am with the Project 1 Porsche team.
Second free practice for the Bahrain 8 Hours starts at 17:30 local time on Thursday afternoon.
WEC Bahrain FP1 results:
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Paul di Resta  Mikkel Jensen  Jean-Eric Vergne |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'50.536 | |
| 2 |
Loic Duval  Gustavo Menezes  Nico Müller |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'51.413 | 0.877 |
| 3 |
Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'51.675 | 1.139 |
| 4 |
 Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'51.796 | 1.260 |
| 5 |
Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'51.917 | 1.381 |
| 6 |
François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen  Alessio Rovera |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.144 | 1.608 |
| 7 |
Lilou Wadoux Paul-Loup Chatin Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.335 | 1.799 |
| 8 |
 Roberto Gonzalez  Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.389 | 1.853 |
| 9 |
 Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.539 | 2.003 |
| 10 |
Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.829 | 2.293 |
| 11 |
 Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.845 | 2.309 |
| 12 |
Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.022 | 2.486 |
| 13 |
Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.046 | 2.510 |
| 14 |
Oliver Rasmussen  Ed Jones  Jonathan Aberdein |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.512 | 2.976 |
| 15 |
Thomas Steven  James Allen Rene Binder |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.989 | 3.453 |
| 16 |
Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.124 | 3.588 |
| 17 |
Renger van der Zande  Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.542 | 4.006 |
| 18 |
Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.971 | 4.435 |
| 19 |
 Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Richard Bradley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.474 | 4.938 |
| 20 |
Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.025 | 7.489 |
| 21 |
 Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.261 | 7.725 |
| 22 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.398 | 7.862 |
| 23 |
Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.457 | 7.921 |
| 24 |
Tommy Milner Nick Tandy |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.459 | 8.923 |
| 25 |
PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Ben Barnicoat |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.636 | 9.100 |
| 26 |
Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.874 | 9.338 |
| 27 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.968 | 9.432 |
| 28 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.330 | 9.794 |
| 29 |
Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.392 | 9.856 |
| 30 |
Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'01.462 | 10.926 |
| 31 |
Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.545 | 11.009 |
| 32 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.666 | 11.130 |
| 33 |
 Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.906 | 11.370 |
| 34 |
Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey  Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'01.985 | 11.449 |
| 35 |
Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'02.633 | 12.097 |
| 36 |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'02.706 | 12.170 |
| 37 |
Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'02.934 | 12.398 |
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