WEC Bahrain 6 Hours: Kobayashi keeps Toyota on top in final practice

The Japanese driver posted the fastest time of the meeting so far with his first flying lap during a qualifying simulation at the start of the 60-minute Free Practice 3 session.

His 1m48.978s aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID was just under a tenth quicker than his best from FP2 on Friday morning, a session held in cooler conditions. 

Kobayashi ended up seven tenths clear of team-mate Brendon Hartley in the sister Toyota.

The New Zealander didn't set a representative time on his first flying lap after a Full Course Yellow virtual safety car was called because the High Class Racing ORECA LMP2 was slow on track.

Hartley subsequently posted a 1m49.689s on his third flier on his fresh set of Michelin tyres after the track went green.

The #8 Toyota had been ready to go from the beginning of the session after a front corner and the nose were changed after Sebastien Buemi's clash with Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Lynx GTE Am class Ferrari in FP2.

The Alpine-Gibson A480 LMP1 car was third fastest in the three-car Hypercar class.

Andre Negrao's posted the grandfathered P1 car's best time of the week with a 1m50.166s, which was just three hundredths quicker than Matthieu Vaxiviere managed in the Friday morning session.

The Britsh Jota team maintained its monopoly of top spot in LMP2 in Bahrain, Tom Blomqvist's 1m50.696s aboard the #28 ORECA-Gibson 07 putting him more than half a second clear of the pack.

Filipe Albuquerque took second in the United Autosports ORECA with a 1m51.351s, while Antonio Felix da Costa was third in the second Jota entry with a 1m51.695s.

Renger van der Zande claimed fourth in the Inter Europol ORECA, while Robert Kubica led the Pro/Am sub-class for the Danish High Class squad.

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

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Neel Jani was quickest in GTE Pro for Porsche with a 1m58.230s, while Alessandro Pier Guidi was less than two tenths behind in the best of Ferraris.

Pier Guidi's 1m58.399s was nearly second faster than the previous best from one of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos over the course of the three practice sessions, but the faster of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs was nearly two seconds slower than in FP2 on Friday morning. 

Miguel Molina was third in the second of the factory Ferraris, while Gianmaria Bruni brought up the rear of GTE Pro in the other works Porsche 911 RSR run by the Manthey team. 

Jaxon Evans was fastest in GTE Am for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche squad.

Qualifying for Saturday's Bahrain 6 Hours is due to start 4:30pm local time.

The qualifying for WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more information. 

WEC Bahrain 6 Hours - FP3 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'48.978
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'49.689	0.711
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'50.166	1.188
4	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.696	1.718
5	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.351	2.373
6	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.695	2.717
7	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.061	3.083
8	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.208	3.230
9	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.477	3.499
10	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.499	3.521
11	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.546	3.568
12	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'53.708	4.730
13	1	Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'55.178	6.200
14	44	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Kush Maini	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'57.445	8.467
15	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'58.230	9.252
16	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'58.399	9.421
17	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'58.659	9.681
18	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'58.870	9.892
19	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.502	10.524
20	85	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.858	10.880
21	60	Rino Mastronardi Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.987	11.009
22	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.987	11.009
23	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.024	11.046
24	88	Khaled Al Qubaisi Adrien de Leener Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.060	11.082
25	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.174	11.196
26	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.224	11.246
27	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.236	11.258
28	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.278	11.300
29	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.451	11.473
30	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.801	11.823
31	57	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.457	12.479
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