Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Gary Watkins

WEC Bahrain: Peugeot claims 1-2 to head FP1 over #7 Toyota

Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Muller blocked out the top positions in the 90-minute FP1 session aboard the pair of Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hypercars, which will be making their third start in the series in Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours season finale.

Muller, who is making his debut appearance with Peugeot this weekend, initially led the way with a 1m51.413s aboard the #94 9X8 before Vergne went nearly nine tenths quicker in the #93 with a 1m50.536s to knock him off the top spot.

The fastest Toyota GR010 HYBRID was more than a second off the ultimate pace with a 1m51.675s from Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 entry.

The Alpine-Gibson A480 was a further tenth back on 1m51.796 set by Nicolas Lapierre.

The second Toyota brought up the rear of the Hypercar class courtesy of a 1m51.917s posted by Sebastien Buemi right at the start of the session.

Peugeot’s position at the top of the times in the first track running of the Bahrain event follows further testing for the 9X8 since the previous WEC round at Fuji in September and a Balance of Performance change.

The 9X8 has been given a 12kg weight break, while the Toyotas have lost four kilowatts or 5.4bhp under the latest BoP.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid LMP1: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: Toyota Racing)

The AF Corse Pro/Am entry ended up fastest in LMP2 with Ferrari factory driver Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel of the team’s ORECA-Gibson 07.

The Dane posted a 1m54.144s at the start of the 90 minutes.

The Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing ORECA took second position in class with a 1m52.335s from Charles Milesi.

The championship-leading #38 Jota ORECA took third place in Will Stevens’ hands on 1m52.389s.

Michael Christensen gave Porsche the top spot in GTE Pro; the Dane’s 1m58.025s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR gave him a margin of two tenths over the best of the Ferraris.

Antonio Fuoco got down to a 1m58.261 in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo run by the AF Corse factory team, which put him just over a tenth up on Alessandro Pier Guidi’s 1m58.398s in the sister car.

The second Porsche took fourth in class in Gianmaria Bruni’s hands and the solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R fifth with Nick Tandy driving.

Porsche’s top spot follows two so-called black-ball changes outside of the automatic system to the GTE Pro BoP for Bahrain.

Both Ferrari and Chevrolet are able to run less power at Bahrain than last time out in the WEC at Fuji.

Ben Barnicoat was quickest in GTE Am with the Project 1 Porsche team.

Second free practice for the Bahrain 8 Hours starts at 17:30 local time on Thursday afternoon.

WEC Bahrain FP1 results:

Cla Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'50.536  
2 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'51.413 0.877
3 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'51.675 1.139
4 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'51.796 1.260
5 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'51.917 1.381
6 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.144 1.608
7 France Lilou Wadoux
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.335 1.799
8 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.389 1.853
9 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.539 2.003
10 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.829 2.293
11 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.845 2.309
12 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.022 2.486
13 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.046 2.510
14 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.512 2.976
15 United States Thomas Steven
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.989 3.453
16 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.124 3.588
17 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Ireland Ryan Cullen
France Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.542 4.006
18 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.971 4.435
19 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Switzerland Mathias Beche
United Kingdom Richard Bradley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.474 4.938
20 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'58.025 7.489
21 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.261 7.725
22 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.398 7.862
23 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'58.457 7.921
24 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 1'59.459 8.923
25 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.636 9.100
26 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.874 9.338
27 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.968 9.432
28 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.330 9.794
29 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.392 9.856
30 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.462 10.926
31 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.545 11.009
32 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.666 11.130
33 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.906 11.370
34 United States Fred Poordad
United States Patrick Lindsey
Belgium Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'01.985 11.449
35 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'02.633 12.097
36 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.706 12.170
37 United States Ben Keating
Portugal Henrique Chaves Jr.
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'02.934 12.398
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.