Bahrain WEC: Ginetta tops first practice by two seconds
Ginetta dominated the first practice for the Bahrain round of FIA World Endurance Championship, leading its closest LMP1 rival Rebellion by over two seconds.
Ben Hanley put the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 on top early in practice with a time of 1m44.701s, two seconds down on the corresponding session from 2017.
However, with no late improvements late in the session, that time was enough for Hanley, Jordan King and Charlie Robertson to stay quickest, 2.185s ahead of the sole Rebellion R-13 of Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes.
After trailing the Toyotas, Nato moved the Rebellion to second halfway through the session, lapping the circuit in 1m46.976s.
Toyota ended the session as the slowest of the three LMP1 outfits, with the #8 car of Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi leading the sister #7 machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
Buemi's quickest time of 1m47.456s in the #8 TS050 Hybrid was 0.152s quicker than what Conway managed in the #7 car.
The #6 Ginetta, the only LMP1 car to run without a handicap this weekend, sat behind the leading LMP2 cars after completing just six laps early on.
But a late stint by newcomer Chris Dyson moved the car he shares with Guy Smith and Michael Simpson up to fifth overall, 3.2s down on the pace-setting Ginetta.
United Autosports topped the LMP2 times courtesy of a 1m48.273s effort by Paul di Resta in the #22 Oreca 07.
Di Resta ended up marginally quicker than the Cool Racing Oreca of Nicolas Lapierre, while Nyck de Vries, Giedo van der Garde were third-quickest in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
G-Drive Racing's one-off entry was more than two seconds off the pace and eighth in class in the hands of Roman Rusinov.
Porsche led a 1-2 in the GTE Pro category, with the #91 car of Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni leading the way for the German manufacturer thanks to Bruni's time of 1m57.388s.
Michael Christensen finished 0.037s down in the #92 911 RSR-19 that leads the championship heading into the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Ferrari finished as Porsche’s closest rival in FP1, with the #71 488 GTE of Miguel Molina finishing another 0.012s adrift in third ahead of the #51 of James Calado.
The GTE Am category was topped by the championship-leading TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Jonathan Adam.
A full course yellow was briefly deployed with 30 minutes left on the clock when a bollard was knocked off, and required intervention from track marshals.
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Practice results:
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charles Robertson Ben Hanley Jordan King | Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 1'44.791 | |
| 2 |  Bruno Senna  Gustavo Menezes  Norman Nato | Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'46.976 | 2.185 |
| 3 |  Sébastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'47.456 | 2.665 |
| 4 | Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'47.608 | 2.817 |
| 5 | Michael Simpson Chris Dyson Guy Smith | Ginetta G60-LT-P1 | LMP1 | 1'48.005 | 3.214 |
| 6 | Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.273 | 3.482 |
| 7 | Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.295 | 3.504 |
| 8 |  Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.817 | 4.026 |
| 9 | Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues | Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'48.874 | 4.083 |
| 10 | Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita  Anders Fjordbach | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.963 | 4.172 |
| 11 |  Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.172 | 4.381 |
| 12 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.377 | 4.586 |
| 13 |  Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 1'50.409 | 5.618 |
| 14 |  Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto | Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 1'50.831 | 6.040 |
| 15 | Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.388 | 12.597 |
| 16 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.425 | 12.634 |
| 17 | Davide Rigon  Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.437 | 12.646 |
| 18 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.406 | 13.615 |
| 19 |  Salih Yoluc  Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.803 | 14.012 |
| 20 |  Khaled Al Qubaisi  Adrien de Leener Thomas Preining | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'58.825 | 14.034 |
| 21 | Alex Lynn Maxime Martin | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.904 | 14.113 |
| 22 | Ben Keating Larry ten Voorde Jeroen Bleekemolen | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.387 | 14.596 |
| 23 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.407 | 14.616 |
| 24 |  Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.456 | 14.665 |
| 25 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.539 | 14.748 |
| 26 |  Christian Ried Riccardo Pera  Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.652 | 14.861 |
| 27 | Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.911 | 15.120 |
| 28 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'00.095 | 15.304 |
| 29 |  Egidio Perfetti David Heinemeier Hansson Matteo Cairoli | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.259 | 15.468 |
| 30 | Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.831 | 17.040 |
| 31 | Motoaki Ishikawa  Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'02.451 | 17.660 |
| View full results | |||||
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