Bahrain WEC: Buemi pips Conway for top spot in opening practice

Sebastien Buemi posted a 1m43.457s immediately after a red flag right at the start of the 90-minute session.

His lap eclipsed the 1m43.949s set by Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID shortly before FP1 was briefly stopped.

The 0.54s penalty carried by the #8 car reflects the slender championship lead for Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley going into Saturday's eight-hour race.

The LMP2 order was topped by Giedo van der Garde in the Racing Team Nederland ORECA-Gibson 07.

His time of 1m47.955s put him nearly two tenths up on the Signatech Alpine ORECA in which Andre Negrao recorded a 1m48.126s.

Third fastest was the Jota Sport ORECA on 1m48.303s.

The time from Antonio Felix da Costa set at the of the session improved on team-mate Anthony Davidson's earlier best for the car by two hundredths.

The United Autosports squad that sealed the class championship with victory at Le Mans was fourth fastest with Paul di Resta.

Aston Martin went to the top of the timesheets in GTE Pro in the closing minutes of the session.

Maxime Martin recorded a 1m56.560s in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE he is sharing with Ricard Westbrook after Alex Lynn was ruled out of the Bahrain event following a positive COVID-19 test.

Porsche's Ricard Lietz, who set a 1m57.177s at the start of the 90 minutes, was pushed down to second by Martin's improvement.

The second of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs took third in the times with a 1m57.218s from Michael Christensen.

Nicki Thiiim ended fourth in the second of the Aston Martins on 1m57.508s.

The best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos was more than two seconds off the pace on a 1m58.571s from James Calado.

The GTE Am class was led by Ross Gunn in the factory-run #98 Vantage.

His 1m57.666s set at the beginning of the session was almost equaled by Ben Barker's 1m57.688s in the Gulf Racing UK Porsche late in the session.

Free practice resumes with the second of the three sessions at 9:00am local time on Friday, with qualifying beginning at 6:00pm.

Results

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	LMP1	S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, B.Hartley	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1m43.457s
2	LMP1	M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	0.492s
3	LMP2	F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries	Racing Team Nederland	ORECA/Gibson	4.498s
4	LMP2	T.Laurent, A.Negrao, P.Ragues	Signatech Alpine Elf	Alpine/Gibson	4.669s
5	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, A.F.da Costa, A.Davidson	JOTA	ORECA/Gibson	4.846s
6	LMP2	P.Hanson, F.Albuquerque, P.Di Resta	United Autosports	ORECA/Gibson	5.014s
7	LMP2	H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, W.Stevens	Jackie Chan DC Racing	ORECA/Gibson	5.319s
8	LMP2	R.Lacorte, A.Belicchi, G.Sernagiotto	Cetilar Racing	ORECA/Gibson	10.360s
9	GTE Pro	R.Westbrook, M.Martin	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	13.103s
10	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, R.Lietz	Porsche GT Team	Porsche	13.720s
11	GTE Pro	M.Christensen, K.Estre	Porsche GT Team	Porsche	13.761s
12	GTE Pro	M.Sorensen, N.Thiim	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	14.051s
13	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, R.Gunn	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	14.209s
14	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Picariello, B.Barker	Gulf Racing	Porsche	14.231s
15	GTE Am	B.Keating, D.Pereira, J.Bleekemolen	Team Project 1	Porsche	14.570s
16	GTE Pro	J.Calado, D.Serra	AF Corse	Dallara/Gibson	15.114s
17	GTE Am	E.Perfetti, L.ten Voorde, J.Bergmeister	Team Project 1	Porsche	15.200s
18	GTE Am	S.Yoluc, C.Eastwood, J.Adam	TF Sport	Aston Martin	15.344s
19	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, M.Molina	AF Corse	Ferrari	15.375s
20	GTE Am	C.Ried, R.Pera, D.Olsen	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche	15.588s
21	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, N.Nielsen	AF Corse	Ferrari	15.643s
22	GTE Am	T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella	AF Corse	Ferrari	16.158s
23	GTE Am	B.Grimes, K.Cozzolino, C.Noble	Red River Sport	Ferrari	16.271s
24	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, J.Evans, M.Holzer	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche	16.605s