WEC Bahrain: Peugeot claims 1-2 to head FP1 over #7 Toyota

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.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid LMP1: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: Toyota Racing)

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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