Bahrain WEC: Toyota surges ahead of Peugeot in final practice

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
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