Practice report
WEC Bahrain
Bahrain WEC: Ginetta tops first practice by two seconds
Ginetta dominated the first practice for the Bahrain round of FIA World Endurance Championship, leading its closest LMP1 rival Rebellion by over two seconds.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Dec 12, 2019, 3:18 PM
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Ben Hanley put the #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 on top early in practice with a time of 1m44.701s, two seconds down on the corresponding session from 2017.
However, with no late improvements late in the session, that time was enough for Hanley, Jordan King and Charlie Robertson to stay quickest, 2.185s ahead of the sole Rebellion R-13 of Bruno Senna, Norman Nato and Gustavo Menezes.
After trailing the Toyotas, Nato moved the Rebellion to second halfway through the session, lapping the circuit in 1m46.976s.
Toyota ended the session as the slowest of the three LMP1 outfits, with the #8 car of Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi leading the sister #7 machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
Buemi's quickest time of 1m47.456s in the #8 TS050 Hybrid was 0.152s quicker than what Conway managed in the #7 car.
The #6 Ginetta, the only LMP1 car to run without a handicap this weekend, sat behind the leading LMP2 cars after completing just six laps early on.
But a late stint by newcomer Chris Dyson moved the car he shares with Guy Smith and Michael Simpson up to fifth overall, 3.2s down on the pace-setting Ginetta.
United Autosports topped the LMP2 times courtesy of a 1m48.273s effort by Paul di Resta in the #22 Oreca 07.
Di Resta ended up marginally quicker than the Cool Racing Oreca of Nicolas Lapierre, while Nyck de Vries, Giedo van der Garde were third-quickest in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
G-Drive Racing's one-off entry was more than two seconds off the pace and eighth in class in the hands of Roman Rusinov.
Porsche led a 1-2 in the GTE Pro category, with the #91 car of Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni leading the way for the German manufacturer thanks to Bruni's time of 1m57.388s.
Michael Christensen finished 0.037s down in the #92 911 RSR-19 that leads the championship heading into the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Ferrari finished as Porsche’s closest rival in FP1, with the #71 488 GTE of Miguel Molina finishing another 0.012s adrift in third ahead of the #51 of James Calado.
The GTE Am category was topped by the championship-leading TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Jonathan Adam.
A full course yellow was briefly deployed with 30 minutes left on the clock when a bollard was knocked off, and required intervention from track marshals.
Catch qualifying LIVE on Motorsport.tv here. Some georestrictions may apply.
Practice results:
Cla Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 Charles Robertson
Ben Hanley
Jordan King Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'44.791 2
Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes
Norman Nato Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'46.976 2.185 3
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'47.456 2.665 4
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'47.608 2.817 5
Michael Simpson
Chris Dyson
Guy Smith Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'48.005 3.214 6
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.273 3.482 7
Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.295 3.504 8
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.817 4.026 9
Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao
Pierre Ragues Alpine A470 LMP2 1'48.874 4.083 10
Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita
Anders Fjordbach Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.963 4.172 11
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Will Stevens Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.172 4.381 12
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.377 4.586 13
Roman Rusinov
Job Van Uitert
Jean-Eric Vergne Aurus 01 LMP2 1'50.409 5.618 14
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto Dallara P217 LMP2 1'50.831 6.040 15
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.388 12.597 16
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.425 12.634 17
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'57.437 12.646 18
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.406 13.615 19
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'58.803 14.012 20
Thomas Preining Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'58.825 14.034 21
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'58.904 14.113 22
Ben Keating
Larry ten Voorde
Jeroen Bleekemolen Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.387 14.596 23
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'59.407 14.616 24
Paul Dalla Lana
Darren Turner
Ross Gunn Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'59.456 14.665 25
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.539 14.748 26
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.652 14.861 27
Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.911 15.120 28
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.095 15.304 29
Egidio Perfetti
David Heinemeier Hansson
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'00.259 15.468 30
Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson
Benjamin Barker Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'01.831 17.040 31
Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta
Kei Cozzolino Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.451 17.660 View full results
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