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Australia
Practice report

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.

#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley

#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley

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.#DriversCarClassTimeGap
1 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'42.438  
2 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.124 0.686
3 8 united_kingdom Anthony Davidson 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.734 1.296
4 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.902 1.464
5 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.879 6.441
6 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.338 6.900
7 26 france Loic Duval 
russia Roman Rusinov 
france Leo Roussel 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.377 6.939
8 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson 
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.053 7.615
9 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.106 7.668
10 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.315 7.877
11 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.727 8.289
12 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.276 8.838
13 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'51.634 9.196
14 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'57.972 15.534
15 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'58.179 15.741
16 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'58.456 16.018
17 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'58.650 16.212
18 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'58.897 16.459
19 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 1'59.323 16.885
20 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'59.359 16.921
21 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'00.476 18.038
22 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'00.661 18.223
23 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'00.695 18.257
24 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'01.205 18.767
25 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'01.320 18.882
26 86 united_kingdom Michael Wainwright 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
united_kingdom Nick Foster 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'01.965 19.527

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