The fight for the WEC title has started with the dispute of the first practice session of the 8 Hours of Bahrain, last appointment of the championship. A duel between the two Toyota GR010 Hybrid that has fallen in this first round on the side of # 8, since Brendon Hartley outscored Kamui Kobayashi by four tenths. For its part, Alpine # 36 finished just over nine tenths behind the leader. Regarding the rest of the categories, Realteam’s Oreca # 70 has been the best LMP2 on the track, while the # 92 Porsche has led the double in LMGTE-Pro thanks to the best time of Neel Jani.
The first free practice of the 8 Hours of Bahrain has been played at night in order to allow drivers and teams to adapt to the conditions that will be encountered during this weekend, different from those that occurred in the 6-hour race just seven days ago. Scenario in which Brendon Hartley was the fastest rider after setting a better time of 1: 48.490. The New Zealander has overtaken the # 7 Toyota driven by Kamui Kobayashi by 408 thousandths. For his part, Nico Lapierre has placed the Alpine # 36 in third position, almost a second behind the leader.
The LMP2 category title battle between the two JOTA Sport prototypes and Team WRT’s Oreca has been eclipsed in the first free practice session for the good work of other drivers and teams. In fact, Norman Nato has set the best time in the category with the Oreca # 70 for Realteam Racing. The Frenchman signed a time of 1: 50.792 to beat Tom Blomqvist by 28 thousandths. For its part, Racing Team Nederland’s Oreca # 29 was third thanks to Giedo Van der Garde’s best time. The top six LMP2s finished four tenths apart.
Among the GTE, the dialectical duel between Porsche and Ferrari it is above the null competition on the track. In fact, the # 92 and # 91 Porsche have signed a resounding one-two over the two Ferraris, as the AF Corse cars finished three seconds behind Neel Jani’s best time. Far from the asphalt ‘Balance of Performance’ adjustments made before Bahrain 6 o’clock continue to kick in, since from Ferrari they assure that with this ‘BoP’ the title is resolved from the offices of the FIA and ACO, while in Porsche they do not trust the rhythm shown by the GTE of Ferrari.
Far from these ‘political’ duels, the category LMGTE-Am it lives in its own ‘atmosphere’. So much so that Augusto Farfus has set the best time with the Aston Martin # 98 after completing his best spin in 1: 58.093. Two tenths behind the Team Project 1 Porsche # 56 finished with Matteo Cairoli at the helm. Closing the ‘top 3’, with the presence of the three manufacturers that compete in the category, the Ferrari # 47 of Cetilar Racing has been placed. On this occasion, the person in charge of completing the best record has been Antonio Fuoco.