The FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain got underway yesterday at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) and it was Toyota Gazoo Racing who set the weekend’s early pace.
‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’ is the stage for the final two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) 2021 season. The historic double-header kicked off yesterday with Free Practice 1 along BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track.
Toyota Gazoo Racing had both their cars atop the overall timesheet after 90 minutes of running, making for a successful debut for the Hypercar class at the world-famous Sakhir desert circuit.
Their #8 GR010 Hybrid challenger was in first place with the crew of Kazuki Nakajima-Sebastien Buemi-Brendon Hartley behind the wheel. Their best time was one minute 50.571 seconds, while running for a total of 36 laps of work.
The #7 GR1010 Hyrbid of Mike Conway-Kamui Kobayashi-Jose Maria Lopez was second with a fastest lap of 1:50.972. Third in the Hypercar class but fourth on the overall times was Alpine Elf Matmut. The crew of Andre Negrao-Nicolas Lapierre-Matthieu Vaxiviere had a best lap of 1:51.098 in their Alpine A480-Gibson.
In the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) 2 class, JOTA were the frontrunners and also third quickest overall in the session. Roberto Gonzalez-Antonio Felix Da Costa-Anthony Davidson drove their #38 Oreca 07-Gibson to a fastest mark of 1:51.083 with 32 laps completed.
They were followed by Realteam Racing’s #70 trio of Esteban Garcia-Loic Duval-Norman Nato (1:51.212) and the #28 JOTA of Sean Gelael-Stoffel Vandoorne-Tom Blomqvist (1:51.529).
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) Pro category saw a pair of Porsche 911 RSR-19s atop the times. In first place was the #91 Porsche GT Team tandem of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, with a best time of 1:57.983 and 35 laps of work.
Their teammates Neel Jani and Kevin Estre in the #92 car followed on a 1:58.785 time, while the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of AF Corse duo Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado were third with a fastest lap of 2:00.330.
The LMGTE Am class was led by a trio of Porsches. In first was Team Project 1’s Ricciardo Pera-Matteo Cairoli-Egidio Perfetti, who drove their #56 contender to a 1:58.177 lap while completing 27 laps.
Dempsey-Proton Racing were second and third, with the #88 crew of Khaled Al Qubaisi-Adrien De Leener-Julien Andlauer posting a best time of 1:58.897 and the #77 trio of Jaxon Evans-Christian Ried-Matt Campbell going for 1:59.328.
A total of 31 cars in all four classes competed in the weekend’s opening practice.
WEC action continues today with a busy programme on track. At 8.30am, Free Practice 2 will get underway and continue until 10am. Free Practice 3 will then be held from 12.45pm to 1.45pm. Qualifying for the LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am classes will then be held from 4.30pm to 4.40pm, followed by Qualifying for the Hypercar and LMP2 classes between 4.50pm and 5pm.
Qualifying will set the stage for tomorrow’s Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, which is scheduled for an 11am start.
The Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain is the front-end of the back-to-back WEC race weekends in Sakhir. It will be followed on November 5 and 6 by the 2021 season-finale, the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The WEC’s newest champions are set to be crowned at BIC at the end of the final round.
Prior to the Sakhir spectacle, the WEC held events across some of Europe’s top tracks, with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in May, the 8 Hours of Portimao in Portugal in June, the 6 Hours of Monza in Italy in July and the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in August.
Bahrain continues to be the only Middle Eastern destination of the WEC, and this year the series’ only stop in all of Asia.
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