Practice report
WEC Bahrain
Bahrain WEC: Webber Porsche fastest in first practice
The championship-leading Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley set the practice pace as dusk descended in Bahrain ahead of the World Endurance Championship finale.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Nov 20, 2015, 8:10 AM
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Bernhard lapped the Sakhir track in 1m42.800s, just 0.017s ahead of the leading Audi.
Andre Lotterer, who shares his Audi R18 e-tron quattro with Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer, was second fastest with a lap of 1m42.817s.
The second Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis was third, ahead of the Porsche of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb – each six tenths off the pace.
As usual, the Toyotas weren’t in the same league as its German rivals, and its cars were 2.5s and 2.6s off the pace respectively.
In LMP2, the Signatech Alpine-Nissan of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann led the way from the G-Drive Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal.
In GTE Pro, Ferrari held sway with the Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Villander 458 Italia heading the sister AF Corse car of Davide Rigon and James Calado. Porsche led the chase with the 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.
The Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda led the way in GTE Am.
The relatively uneventful session was interrupted by full course yellow flags twice: the first time to retrieve and replace a damaged bollard at Turn 10, the second for debris at the final corner.
There is a second practice under floodlights at 1930 local time.
Results: WEC 2015 Bahrain FP1
PosDriverTeamCarTimeGapLaps 1 
Mark Webber
Brendon Hartley
Timo Bernhard Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid 1:42.800 1:42.800 37 2 Andre Lotterer
Benoit Tréluyer
Marcel Fassler Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 1:42.817 +0.017 34 3 Loic Duval
Oliver Jarvis
Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 1:43.403 +0.603 37 4 Marc Lieb
Romain Dumas
Neel Jani Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid 1:43.454 +0.654 37 5 Anthony Davidson
Kazuki Nakajima
Sébastien Buemi Toyota Racing Toyota TS040 Hybrid 1:45.371 +2.571 32 6 
Alexander Wurz
Mike Conway
Stéphane Sarrazin Toyota Racing Toyota TS040 Hybrid 1:45.485 +2.685 28 7 Alexandre Imperatori
Mathéo Tuscher
Dominik Kraihamer Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One 1:50.149 +7.349 29 8 Mathias Beche
Nicolas Prost Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One 1:50.150 +7.350 25 9 Nelson Panciatici
Paul-Loup Chatin
Tom Dillmann Signatech Alpine Alpine A450b 1:52.054 +9.254 40 10 Pierre Kaffer
Simon Trummer Team ByKolles CLM P1/01 1:52.065 +9.265 14 11 
Roman Rusinov
Sam Bird
Julien Canal G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 1:52.086 +9.286 34 12 Jonny Kane
Nick Leventis
Danny Watts Strakka Racing Gibson 015S 1:52.686 +9.886 34 13 Matthew Howson
Nick Tandy
Richard Bradley KCMG ORECA 05 1:52.850 +10.050 29 14 Devi Markozov
Nicolas Minassian
Mikhail Aleshin AF Racing BR Engineering BR01 1:53.164 +10.364 32 15 Oliver Webb
Chris Cumming
Pierre Ragues Team SARD Morand Morgan LMP2 Evo '15 1:53.374 +10.574 36 16 
Ed Brown
Jon Fogarty
Johannes van Overbeek Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 1:53.655 +10.855 35 17 Pipo Derani
Gustavo Yacaman
Ricardo Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 1:54.370 +11.570 37 18 
David Heinemeier Hansson
Ryan Dalziel
Scott Sharp Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 1:54.537 +11.737 36 19 
Toni Vilander
Gianmaria Bruni AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia 2:00.135 +17.335 34 20 Davide Rigon
James Calado AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia 2:00.505 +17.705 33 21 Frédéric Makowiecki
Patrick Pilet Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR 2:00.774 +17.974 32 22 
Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:01.280 +18.480 33 23 Jonathan Adam
Darren Turner Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:01.404 +18.604 38 24 Gianluca Roda
Kristian Poulsen
Paolo Ruberti Larbre Compétition Chevrolet Corvette C7.R 2:01.417 +18.617 33 25 Richard Lietz
Michael Christensen Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR 2:01.932 +19.132 30 26 Alex MacDowall
Richie Stanaway
Fernando Rees Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:01.933 +19.133 36 27 Aleksey Basov
Andrea Bertolini
Viktor Shaitar SMP Racing Ferrari F458 Italia 2:02.124 +19.324 31 28 Nicki Thiim
Christoffer Nygaard
Marco Sørensen Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:02.152 +19.352 36 29 Christian Ried
Patrick Long
Marco Seefried Dempsey Racing - Proton Porsche 911 RSR 2:02.363 +19.563 33 30 Roald Goethe
Francesco Castellacci
Stuart Hall Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:02.921 +20.121 34 31 Emmanuel Collard
Matteo Cressoni
François Perrodo AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia 2:04.367 +21.567 35 32 
Khaled Al Qubaisi
Klaus Bachler
Marco Mapelli Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR 2:04.672 +21.872 33
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