WEC Bahrain 8 Hours: #8 Toyota completes practice sweep

Hartley outpaced Kobayashi by four tenths when the Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs went out on new Michelin tyres right at the start of the one-hour Free Practice 3 session.

The New Zealander knocked six tenths off his first time on his second flying lap in the #7 Toyota to end up on a 1m48.346s.

Kobayashi set an unrepresentative time on his first flier, before posting a 1m48.777s aboard the #7 car that leads the standings by 15 points.

The Alpine-Gibson A480, the only other car in the Hypercar class, trailed the Toyotas and the fastest two LMP2 cars in fifth overall.

Andre Negrao set a 1m51.794s shortly before the session was reflagged while a corner bollard was replaced at Turn 9.

Antonio Felix da Costa and Filipe Albuquerque both went faster than the Alpine grandfathered LMP1 car in their ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 cars.

Da Costa's 1m51.188s, in the best of the Jota team's two entires, gave him a three tenth margin over the 1m51.524s from Albuquerque in the United Autosports car.

#38 JOTA Oreca 07 - Gibson: Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Anthony Davidson

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

A 1m52.059s lap gave Tom Blomqvist third in class in the second Jota entry, while Sophia Florsch was fourth in the Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing ORECA with a time of 1m52.681s.

Fastest in the Pro/Am LMP2 subclass was Norman Nato with a 1m52.758s.

Kevin Estre was fastest in GTE Pro for Porsche with a 1m56.590s, which gave him a one tenth margin over Gianmaria Bruni in the other Porsche 911 RSR.

The Ferraris, which have received a new Balance of Performance for this weekend's eight-hour race, took third and fourth positions.

James Calado took third in the first of the AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos with a 1m58.411s, while Daniel Serra was a tenth further back in fourth on 1m58.519s.

Matteo Cairoli was quickest i GTE for the Project 1 Porsche squad after leapfrogging AF Corse Ferrari driver Nicklas Nielsen.

The session was extended as a result of the red flag, which lasted approximately nine minutes.

Qualifying for the Bahrain 8 Hours begins at 5:20pm local time on Friday.

WEC Bahrain 8 Hours FP3 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	26	1'48.346
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	29	1'48.777	0.431
3	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	29	1'51.188	2.842
4	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	27	1'51.524	3.178
5	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	29	1'51.794	3.448
6	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	1'52.059	3.713
7	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	1'52.681	4.335
8	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	29	1'52.758	4.412
9	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	1'52.825	4.479
10	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	1'53.008	4.662
11	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	1'53.181	4.835
12	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	22	1'53.833	5.487
13	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	31	1'55.799	7.453
14	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	25	1'56.590	8.244
15	44	Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici	Oreca 07	LMP2	29	1'56.703	8.357
16	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	26	1'57.406	9.060
17	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	26	1'58.411	10.065
18	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	28	1'58.519	10.173
19	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	19	1'58.696	10.350
20	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	28	1'58.803	10.457
21	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	26	1'58.926	10.580
22	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	28	1'59.022	10.676
23	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	29	1'59.061	10.715
24	88	Khaled Al Qubaisi Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	29	1'59.355	11.009
25	85	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	28	1'59.634	11.288
26	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	25	1'59.681	11.335
27	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	26	1'59.730	11.384
28	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	27	1'59.949	11.603
29	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	23	2'00.089	11.743
30	57	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	26	2'00.805	12.459
31	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3
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