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Practice report

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

#17 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley

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#17 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#17 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#36 Signatech Alpine A450b: Paul-Loup Chatin, Nelson Panciatici, Tom Dillmann
#95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage GTE: Marco Sorensen, Christoffer Nygaard, Nicki Thiim
#51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GTE: Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander
#28 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2: Ricardo Gonzalez, Pipo Derani, Gustavo Yacaman
#42 Strakka Racing Gibson 015S: Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane, Danny Watts
#97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage GTE: Darren Turner, Jonathan Adam

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

PosDriverCarTimeGap
Mark Webber 
Brendon Hartley 
Timo Bernhard 
Porsche 919 Hybrid  1:40.917   
Marc Lieb 
Romain Dumas 
Neel Jani 
Porsche 919 Hybrid  1:42.070  +1.153 
Andre Lotterer 
Benoit Tréluyer 
Marcel Fassler 
Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15  1:43.066  +2.149 
Loic Duval 
Oliver Jarvis 
Lucas di Grassi 
Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15  1:43.782  +2.865 
Anthony Davidson 
Kazuki Nakajima 
Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS040 Hybrid  1:43.794  +2.877 
Alexander Wurz 
Mike Conway 
Stéphane Sarrazin 
Toyota TS040 Hybrid  1:44.051  +3.134 
Pierre Kaffer 
Simon Trummer 
CLM P1/01  1:48.696  +7.779 
Mathias Beche 
Nicolas Prost 
Rebellion R-One  1:49.235  +8.318 
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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