Bahrain WEC: Hartley sets electrifying pace in final practice
Porsche’s Brendon Hartley topped the final practice session for the World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.
#17 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
XPB Images
Hartley, who shares his Porsche 919 with Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, set the fastest lap of the weekend on his first flyer, a 1m40.917s.
That was 1.1s clear of Romain Dumas in the sister 919 Hybrid.
The fastest Audi was 2.1s off the pace in Marcel Fassler's hands, a 1m43.066s. There was a big scare for Andre Lotterer in that car late in the session, when the out-of-shape Nelson Panciatici caused him to take evasive action at the exit of Turn 3.
The second Audi, the #8 car, was third fastest, 2.8s off the pace.
The Toyotas were their customary fifth and sixth, although the #1 car was just 0.012s off the slowest Audi.
David Heinemeier Hansson topped the LMP2 times early on in the ESM Ligier, but was soon topped by Paul-Loup Chatin in the Signature Alpine – who received a black and white warning flag for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.
The KCMG Oreca of Richard Bradley/Nick Tandy/Matthew Howson was second fastest.
Astons lead way in GTE
Patrick Pilet was fastest early on in GTE Pro in the Porsche 911 RSR he shares Frederic Makowiecki, but was soon beaten by Nicki Thiim's Aston Martin Vantage.
Darren Turner then hit the top of the times on 1m59.992s in his Aston.
The #99 Aston was 0.06s faster than the sister #97 car, with the #95 making it an Aston 1-2-3. Gianmaria Bruni/Toni Vilander were best of the rest in their AF Corse Ferrari.
Pedro Lamy was fastest in GTE Am in the Aston he shares with Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda.
Incident and accidents
There were plenty of incidents in this one-hour session: Pierre Kaffer spun at Turn 1 in his CLM P1, Nicolas Prost rotated his Rebellion R-One at Turn 8 and Gianluca Roda spun his Corvette at Turn 11.
Dalla Lana spun his Aston at Turn 8 after an earlier turf war with the Proton Porsche of Pat Long, who also had a run-in with the CLM late in the session.
There was also a full course yellow to retrieve the bodywork hatch that covers the front dampers of the Strakka Racing Gibson at Turn 8.
Results: WEC 2015 Bahrain FP3
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mark Webber Brendon Hartley Timo Bernhard |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:40.917 | |
2 | Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:42.070 | +1.153 |
3 | Andre Lotterer Benoit Tréluyer Marcel Fassler |
Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:43.066 | +2.149 |
4 | Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis Lucas di Grassi |
Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:43.782 | +2.865 |
5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:43.794 | +2.877 |
6 | Alexander Wurz Mike Conway Stéphane Sarrazin |
Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:44.051 | +3.134 |
7 | Pierre Kaffer Simon Trummer |
CLM P1/01 | 1:48.696 | +7.779 |
8 | Mathias Beche Nicolas Prost |
Rebellion R-One | 1:49.235 | +8.318 |
9 | Alexandre Imperatori Mathéo Tuscher Dominik Kraihamer |
Rebellion R-One | 1:49.325 | +8.408 |
10 | Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Tom Dillmann |
Alpine A450b | 1:52.019 | +11.102 |
11 | Matthew Howson Nick Tandy Richard Bradley |
ORECA 05 | 1:52.472 | +11.555 |
12 | Roman Rusinov Sam Bird Julien Canal |
Ligier JS P2 | 1:52.564 | +11.647 |
13 | David Heinemeier Hansson Ryan Dalziel Scott Sharp |
Ligier JS P2 | 1:52.938 | +12.021 |
14 | Pipo Derani Gustavo Yacaman Ricardo Gonzalez |
Ligier JS P2 | 1:53.700 | +12.783 |
15 | Ed Brown Jon Fogarty Johannes van Overbeek |
Ligier JS P2 | 1:54.215 | +13.298 |
16 | Oliver Webb Chris Cumming Pierre Ragues |
Morgan LMP2 Evo '15 | 1:55.202 | +14.285 |
17 | Jonny Kane Nick Leventis Danny Watts |
Gibson 015S | 1:55.665 | +14.748 |
18 | Devi Markozov Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR Engineering BR01 | 1:55.850 | +14.933 |
19 | Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway Fernando Rees |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 1:59.932 | +19.015 |
20 | Jonathan Adam Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 1:59.992 | +19.075 |
21 | Nicki Thiim Christoffer Nygaard Marco Sørensen |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:00.172 | +19.255 |
22 | Toni Vilander Gianmaria Bruni |
Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:00.421 | +19.504 |
23 | Davide Rigon James Calado |
Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:00.513 | +19.596 |
24 | Frédéric Makowiecki Patrick Pilet |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2:00.698 | +19.781 |
25 | Roald Goethe Francesco Castellacci Stuart Hall |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:01.081 | +20.164 |
26 | Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar |
Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:01.371 | +20.454 |
27 | Emmanuel Collard Matteo Cressoni François Perrodo |
Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:01.490 | +20.573 |
28 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2:01.526 | +20.609 |
29 | Christian Ried Patrick Long Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2:02.018 | +21.101 |
30 | Gianluca Roda Kristian Poulsen Paolo Ruberti |
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 2:02.110 | +21.193 |
31 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:03.148 | +22.231 |
32 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Klaus Bachler Marco Mapelli |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2:03.930 | +23.013 |
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