Bahrain WEC: Porsche maintains advantage ahead of qualifying
The #1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber set the pace in final practice for the WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain, half a second up on the opposition.
#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
XPB Images
It was Bernhard who set the fastest lap of the session, a 1m40.318s, at the very start, as all six LMP1 hybrid cars recorded their quickest times on their first flying laps before settling into long-run work.
Second quickest was the best of the Audis, the #8 R18 e-tron quattro driven by Oliver Jarvis, who was 0.488s down on Bernhard in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
There was some late drama for Audi however as the #8 car, by then back in the hands of Jarvis, ground to a halt between Turns 1 and 2 with just a couple of minutes to go, bringing out double-waved yellow flags.
Toyota made it three different manufacturers in the top three with its #5 car, Anthony Davidson missing out on second by 0.048s and the top spot by 0.534s, while Andre Lotterer but the #7 Audi fourth with a time of 1m41.000s.
The two title-contending cars could do no more than fifth and sixth. Marc Lieb posted a 1m41.014s in the #2 Porsche, 0.696s slower than the sister car, while Kamui Kobayashi was 0.958s off the pace in the sixth-placed #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid.
Rebellion once again led privateer LMP1 rival ByKolles by nearly two seconds.
In LMP2, the #26 G-Drive Oreca picked up where it left off on Friday evening by setting the pace with a 1m50.341s, which came courtesy of the returning Rene Rast.
Second fastest was the title-winning #36 Signatech Alpine of Stephane Richelmi, albeit a whole second slower, followed by the #35 machine of Paul-Loup Chatin.
Ferrari takes control in GTE
After Aston Martin led both Friday sessions in the GTE-Pro category, it was the turn of AF Corse Ferrari to lead the way on Saturday morning.
Gianmaria Bruni set the pace in the #51 car he shares with James Calado with a best time of 1m59.038s, 0.263s faster than the best of the Astons, Darren Turner's #97 car.
The best of the Fords was third quickest, Stefan Mucke lapping half a second slower than Bruni in the #66 machine and a couple of tenths quicker than the points-leading #95 Aston Martin.
In GTE-Am, it was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari that set the pace with a time of 2m00.701s, set by Emmanuel Collard. The Italian team can be crowned class champions by scoring pole position in qualifying.
Third practice results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'40.318 | |
2 | 8 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'40.806 | 0.488 |
3 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'40.852 | 0.534 |
4 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'41.000 | 0.682 |
5 | 2 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'41.014 | 0.696 |
6 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'41.276 | 0.958 |
7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 1'46.338 | 6.020 |
8 | 4 | Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer |
CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 1'48.236 | 7.918 |
9 | 26 | Roman Rusinov René Rast Alex Brundle |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'50.431 | 10.113 |
10 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'51.455 | 11.137 |
11 | 35 | Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'51.591 | 11.273 |
12 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'51.805 | 11.487 |
13 | 30 | Giedo van der Garde Tom Dillmann Sean Gelael |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'51.864 | 11.546 |
14 | 43 | Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'51.946 | 11.628 |
15 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'52.497 | 12.179 |
16 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'52.561 | 12.243 |
17 | 45 | Roberto Merhi Julien Canal Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'53.096 | 12.778 |
18 | 44 | Richard Bradley Matthew Rao Alex Lynn |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'53.365 | 13.047 |
19 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.038 | 18.720 |
20 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.301 | 18.983 |
21 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.580 | 19.262 |
22 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.862 | 19.544 |
23 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.920 | 19.602 |
24 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.949 | 19.631 |
25 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.955 | 19.637 |
26 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 2'00.701 | 20.383 |
27 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.325 | 21.007 |
28 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'01.466 | 21.148 |
29 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.987 | 21.669 |
30 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'02.528 | 22.210 |
31 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Romain Brandela |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 2'04.359 | 24.041 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments