Bahrain WEC: Porsche tops disrupted final practice
Porsche led the way in final practice for this weekend's Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship season finale in another session that was interrupted by red flags.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Timo Bernhard set the day's quickest time of 1m42.438s on his first flying lap in the #2 Porsche, some seven tenths clear of the sister #1 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani - but well short of the best times set on Thursday evening.
After topping both Thursday sessions, Toyota ended up third and fourth in FP3, the Japanese marque's best time of 1m43.734s coming courtesy of Anthony Davidson in the #8 TS050 Hybrid.
The #7 Toyota was two tenths further back with Mike Conway at the wheel.
That was how the order stood when the hour-long session was red-flagged with 29 minutes remaining, the result of the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche setting on fire.
Action resumed with 20 minutes left after a quick clean-up operation, prompting a flurry of improvements in the LMP2 and GTE classes.
However, it was an early flyer from Ho-Pin Tung in the title-contending #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca that ended up the benchmark, the Chinese driver setting a best effort of 1m48.879s.
Tristan Gommendy made it a one-two for the Jota Sport-run squad with a 1m49.338s in the #37 entry, while best of the rest was former Audi driver Loic Duval with a 1m49.377s in the #26 G-Drive Oreca.
The points-leading #31 Rebellion car was only seventh-fastest.
In GTE Pro, James Calado put the #51 AF Corse Ferrari on top with a late effort of 1m57.972s.
That was a little over two tenths up on Andy Priaulx in the #67 Ford GT and half a second quicker than Davide Rigon's best effort in the #71 Ferrari.
Thursday pacesetter Aston Martin could manage no better than sixth.
Matt Griffin set the quickest time in the GTE Am class, posting a 2m00.661s in the #61 Clearwater Ferrari.
Practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'42.438 | |
2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.124 | 0.686 |
3 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.734 | 1.296 |
4 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.902 | 1.464 |
5 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.879 | 6.441 |
6 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.338 | 6.900 |
7 | 26 | Loic Duval Roman Rusinov Leo Roussel |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.377 | 6.939 |
8 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.053 | 7.615 |
9 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.106 | 7.668 |
10 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.315 | 7.877 |
11 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.727 | 8.289 |
12 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.276 | 8.838 |
13 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'51.634 | 9.196 |
14 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.972 | 15.534 |
15 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.179 | 15.741 |
16 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.456 | 16.018 |
17 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.650 | 16.212 |
18 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.897 | 16.459 |
19 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.323 | 16.885 |
20 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.359 | 16.921 |
21 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.476 | 18.038 |
22 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'00.661 | 18.223 |
23 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'00.695 | 18.257 |
24 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'01.205 | 18.767 |
25 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'01.320 | 18.882 |
26 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'01.965 | 19.527 |
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