WEC Bahrain 8 Hours: Hartley puts #8 Toyota on top in opening practice

The New Zealander's quickest lap of 1m48.490s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID gave him a margin of four tenths over the championship-leading #7 sister entry in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi.

Hartley set a total of three laps at the start of the 90-minutes session that were quicker than Kobayashi's 1m48.898s mark.

The Signatech-run Alpine-Gibson A480 was slowest of the three cars present in the Hypercar class for the Bahrain double-header that closes out this season.

Nicolas Lapierre was within a second of the pace in the grandfathered LMP1 car with a 1m49.479s.

Times for the cars in the Hypercar class were already quicker than in the corresponding session for last weekend's six-hour race in Bahrain.

The practice sessions for the penultimate round of the 2021 WEC were held during daylight when temperatures were higher, whereas Free Practice 1 for the Bahrain 8 Hours took place after the sun had fallen.

Only three of the eight hours of Saturday's race will take place during the day.

Swiss entrant Realteam led the way in LMP2, Norman Nato posting a 1m50.792s in its TDS Racing-run ORECA-Gibson 07.

The Frenchman ended up just three hundredths quicker than Tom Blomqvist's 1m50.820s in the best of the Jota ORECAs.

Giedo van der Garde took third in the Racing Team Nederland ORECA, also run by TDS, with a 1m51.008s, while Antonio Felix da Costa was fourth in the second Jota entry.

#92 Porsche GT TEAM Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Porsche ended up 1-2 in GTE Pro, Neel Jani leading the way in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR run by the Manthey team. His 1m57.657s compared with Richard Lietz's 1m58.013s in the sister car.

Neither of the factory AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos hit the track until more than 30 minutes into the session and ended up over two seconds behind the pace-setting Porsche despite a late Balance of Performance change.

Miguel Molina posted a 2m00.631s and Alessandro Pier Guidi a 2m00.677s as they brought up the rear of the WEC field behind all the GTE Am cars.

Ferrari did not give a reason for the cars leaving the pits late.

Augusto Farfus was quickest in GTE Am for the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing squad.

The Brazilian's 1m58.093s aboard the #98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE gave him a margin of two tenths over Matteo Cairoli in the Project 1 team's solo entry.

Practice of Saturday's Bahrain 8 Hours resumes at 9:00am local time on Friday.

WEC Bahrain 8 Hours - FP1 results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	40	1'48.490
2	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	36	1'48.898	0.408
3	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	37	1'49.479	0.989
4	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	37	1'50.792	2.302
5	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	33	1'50.820	2.330
6	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	43	1'51.008	2.518
7	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	35	1'51.182	2.692
8	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	29	1'51.192	2.702
9	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	36	1'51.199	2.709
10	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	34	1'51.793	3.303
11	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	43	1'52.145	3.655
12	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	35	1'52.385	3.895
13	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	1'53.252	4.762
14	Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici	Oreca 07	LMP2	41	1'53.815	5.325
15	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	31	1'57.657	9.167
16	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	39	1'58.013	9.523
17	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	38	1'58.093	9.603
18	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	39	1'58.321	9.831
19	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	39	1'58.629	10.139
20	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	39	1'58.697	10.207
21	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	36	1'58.921	10.431
22	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	35	1'59.000	10.510
23	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	33	1'59.050	10.560
24	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	29	1'59.339	10.849
25	Khaled Al Qubaisi Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	38	1'59.552	11.062
26	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	37	1'59.723	11.233
27	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	35	1'59.857	11.367
28	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	39	2'00.143	11.653
29	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	31	2'00.431	11.941
30	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	19	2'00.631	12.141
31	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	20	2'00.677	12.187
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