Qualifying report
WEC Bahrain
Bahrain WEC: Senna, Nato give Rebellion back-to-back poles
Rebellion Racing claimed a second consecutive pole position in the Bahrain round of the FIA World Endurance Championship on Friday.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Dec 15, 2019, 10:14 AM
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Bruno Senna and Norman Nato finished on top with an average time of 1m42.979s, nearly three tenths clear of the leading #5 Ginetta of Ben Hanley and Charlie Robertson.
Senna led the way after the opening runs with a 1m42.396s, before Nato lapped in 1m43.562s to yield a 1m42.979s average for the car that won last time out in Shanghai.
Robertson was only fourth after the first runs with a 1m43.559s before Hanley's 1m42.668s jumped them ahead of the two Toyotas with a 1m43.123s average.
Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima took third in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid with a 1m43.497s average, which was three tenths better than Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez's 1m43.842s in the sister #7 car.
The second Ginetta, qualified by Mike Simpson and Guy Smith, took fifth nearly a second down on the Rebellion.
United Autosports claimed pole in the LMP2 class, courtesy of an average time of 1m45.357s by Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta.
Di Resta set the fastest time in class with a 1m44.869s, which Hanson followed with a 1m45.846s aboard their Oreca 07. Their average put them them nearly three tenths up on the JOTA Sport-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry.
G-Drive Racing claimed third with Job van Uitert and Jean-Eric Vergne on the TDS-run team's first appearance in the WEC this season.
Porsche locked out the front row in GTE Pro, with Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz claiming pole. Their average time of 1m55.485s was just 0.060s quicker than the sister #92 Porsche of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen.
Bruni set the fastest time of the session aboard the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a 1m55.342s, which was nearly two tenths up on Christensen's 1m55.617s.
Estre briefly jumped to the head of the timesheets with a 1m55.473s, but Lietz's 1m55.628s was just enough to put #91 back on top.
Ferrari took third and fourth positions in class, but failed to get within half a second of Porsche.
Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth after the first runs in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE, but James Calado did enough to give them a 1m56.087s average and vault them ahead of the sister car of Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina, who set a 1m56.318s average.
The pair of Aston Martins brought up the rear of the GTE Pro. Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen's 1m56.389s average left them nine tenths off the pace, while Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin were a further tenth back on 1m56.572s.
Ben Keating snatched GTE Am pole after the chequered flag had fallen in the Project 1 Racing Porsche 911 RSR he qualified along with Larry ten Voorde.
Catch the 8 Hours of Bahrain LIVE on Motorsport.tv here. Some geo restrictions may apply.
LMP Results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 1 Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes
Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'42.979 2 5 Charles Robertson
Ben Hanley
Jordan King
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'43.123 0.144 3 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.497 0.518 4 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.842 0.863 5 6 Michael Simpson
Chris Dyson
Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'43.887 0.908 6 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'45.357 2.378 7 37 Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'45.649 2.670 8 26 Roman Rusinov
Job Van Uitert
Jean-Eric Vergne
Aurus 01 LMP2 1'45.953 2.974 9 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'46.415 3.436 10 42 Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'47.265 4.286 11 33 Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita
Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'47.323 4.344 12 36 Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao
Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'47.725 4.746 13 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.899 5.920 14 47 Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'49.474 6.495 View full results
GTE results**:**
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'55.485 2 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'55.545 0.060 3 51 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'56.087 0.602 4 71 Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'56.318 0.833 5 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'56.389 0.904 6 57 Ben Keating
Larry ten Voorde
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.602 2.117 7 88 Khaled Al Qubaisi
Adrien de Leener
Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.661 2.176 8 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'57.690 2.205 9 56 Egidio Perfetti
David Heinemeier Hansson
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.863 2.378 10 86 Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.977 2.492 11 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Darren Turner
Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'58.002 2.517 12 90 Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood
Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'58.047 2.562 13 62 Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'58.217 2.732 14 70 Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta
Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'58.635 3.150 15 77 Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.959 4.474 16 97 Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'56.253 0.768 17 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'56.903 1.418 View full results
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