Toyota dominates FP1 in Bahrain

Longtemps interrompue en raison d’une fuite d’huile ayant touché la Ford GT n°67, la première séance d’essais libres des 6 Heures de Bahreïn a vu les Toyota TS050 Hybrid se hisser au sommet de la feuille de temps. Le meilleur temps, 1’42 »313, est à mettre au crédit de la n°7 du trio Mike conway-José Maria Lopez-Kamui Kobayashi. No. 8 of Buemi-Davidson-Nakajima est 0 »199, alors que les deux Porsche 919 Hybrid suivent à 0 »334 et 0 »500, l’avantage allant à la n°1 de Jani-Lotterer-Tandy.

In LM P2, the Vaillante Rebellion team shone thanks to the No. 13 of Beche-Heinemeier Hansson-Piquet Jr, author of a lap in 1'48"707. Followed by the No. 07 Oreca 26 of G-Drive Racing at the wheel of which Roman Rusinov, Léo Roussel and Loïc duval, and the No. 37 entered by Jackie Chan DC Racing for Gommendy-Cheng-Brundle. The leading quinth is completed by theAlpine A470 of Stone-negrao-Menezes and the No. 24 CEFC Manor TRS Racing of Petrov-Gonzalez-Trummer. The contenders for the title are further away, the No. 38 of Jackie Chan DC Racing (Tung-Jarvis-Laurent) is sixth, two places ahead of the No. 31 of Canal-Cheers-Senna, who brings up the rear.

The leaders of the GT championship shone, since the best time of this session went to the Ferrari 488 GTE n°51 by Calado-Pier Guidi in 1’59”579. The Italian precedes theAston Martin Vantage #97 of Adam-Turner and the Ford GT #67 of Priaulx-Tincknell, which only completed 15 laps due to its engine problem. Second in the GT championship, the Lietz-Makowiecki pair (Porsche 911 RSR n°91) is fifth

In GTE Am, the advantage went to the No. 911 Porsche 77 RSR of Dempsey-Proton Racing (Cairoli-Ried-Dienst), which still hopes to thwart the title ambitions of the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing (Lauda- Dalla Lana-Lamy), second in this session.

The second free practice session will begin at 17:30 p.m. French time.