Menezes fastest rookie in Bahrain

Gustavo Menzes semble bien s’être habitué à la Porsche 919 Hybrid aux rookie tets de Bahreïn. Au lendemain de la dernière épreuve de la saison disputée sur le circuit de Sakhir, où l’Américain a pris la 3e place des LMP2 avec l’Alpine No. 36, he distinguished himself by being the fastest rookie in the post-season tests with a time of 1'43''626 in the morning. The Signatech driver finished 1''4 behind the benchmark set by Neel Jani in the second Porsche LMP1.

Paul-Loup Chatin n’a pas démérité non plus puisque le Français s’est classé à trois dixièmes de Gustavo Menezes sur l’Audi R18 et à 1’’7 du temps référence. Quant à Luis Felipe Derani, le vainqueur des 24 Heures de Daytona et des 12 Heures de Sebring s’est classé à 2’’1 du meilleur temps au volant de la Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

Robert Kubica also achieved interesting times, his best time at the wheel of the CLM01/P1 of the ByKolles Racing Team placing him five seconds behind the practice benchmark after 27 covered laps.

Alex Brundle set the best LMP2 time with a lap of 1'51''184 in the No. 05 Oreca 44 from Manor. Felix Serralles was the closest, 21 thousandths behind the #26 G-Drive Racing car. Weiron Tan followed more than 7 tenths behind in the #45 Manor while Thomas Laurent was the first to finish more than a second behind at the wheel of theAlpine A460 n°36.

In GTE Pro, it was Alex Lynn who set the benchmark with a time of 1'58''774 achieved on theAston Martin n°95, ahead of Ross Gunn and Jordan King by half a second.

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Bahrain carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2090 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.