Yamashita leads rookie tests in Bahrain

Si Kamui Kobayashi signed the reference time for the test day of the WEC in Bahrain by completing a lap of the Sakhir circuit in 1'43''264 at the wheel of the Toyota LMP1, it was his compatriot Kenta Yamashita who was the fastest rookie of the session with a time of 1'44''075, just over 8 tenths off the benchmark, also at the wheel of the TS050 Hybrid.

The Toyota development driver, reigning Super GT champion, was half a second ahead of Thomas Laurent. The Frenchman who ranked behind Brendon Hartley completed 11 laps compared to 17 for the two Japanese. The resident of Racing Team Nederland Nyck de Vries followed by a few hundredths.

Louis Delétraz finished almost 2 seconds behind the reference time on the Rebellion R13, preceding Norman Nato by more than a second on the same mount whose testing was disrupted by rain during the morning.

He is the reigning champion of the LMP3 category in ELMS Mikkel Jensen who set the best time in the LMP2 category among the rookies with a time of 1'46''855 in the G-Drive Racing Aurus 01, a few hundredths behind William Stevens at the wheel of the No. 07 Oreca 37 from Jackie Chan DC Racing. Harrison Newey followed in the Oreca 07 of Team Racing Nederland.

Andrew Watson distinguished himself in GTE with a time of 1'57''139 at the wheel of theAston Martin Vantage n°95 finishing less than half a second behind the Porsche 911 RSR by Gianmaria Bruni. Niklas Nielsen was his closest pursuer on the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Vincent Abril had a promising test in GTE Am by setting the second time of the rookies in the category on the Team Project 1 Porsche, finishing less than 2 tenths behind Maxwell Root on the same machine.

Discover the analysis of the 8 Hours of Bahrain and the rookie tests carried out by our special correspondent in issue n°2247 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.