In the first free practice of the weekend for the Bahrain 8 Hours, the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID took the lead with Kamui Kobayashi’s time of 1 minute 49.856 seconds. This time was set after a long red flag stop and before heavy rain fell towards the end of the run.
The red flag period was caused by strong trackside winds, light rain and a banner being flown onto the track at Turn 1. The red flag period lasted 45 minutes and occurred after the leading hypercar had completed several laps. As a result, race control extended the session by 45 minutes to 2:30pm local time.
Once the course was green again, the entire field straightened back out to try and make the most of the extended session, but with about 30 minutes remaining it was again interrupted by heavy rain. When the rain first started, only a handful of cars were able to withstand the conditions, with the Toyota, No. 51 Ferrari, and No. 5 Penske-Porsche being the first to return on wet tires. Ta.
Meanwhile, the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari came to a halt on the track with WEC newcomer Franck Desoutou at the wheel just as it started to rain.
Due to the weather, there was no improvement in the final stages, and the No. 8 Toyota took second place with a time of 1 minute 9.960 seconds, set by Sébastien Buemi. Immediately after the red flag, Gianmaria Bruni ran the circuit in a time of 1 minute 50.290 seconds, with the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 closest to the Toyotas. The No. 6 car and his No. 5 Penske 963 finished in the top five.
The Ferrari AF Corse’s 499P finished in 8th and 9th place, slower than the No. 38 JOTA and No. 2 Cadillac, which finished 6th and 7th.
In LMP2, Filipe Albuquerque clocked a time of 1:54.100, 0.5 seconds faster than the other competitors, in the No. 22 Oreca of United Autosports. Second place went to No.10 Vector ORECA, and third place went to No.31 WRT ORECA.
D’Station Racing’s No. 777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE had Tomonobu Fujii setting the pace in GTE Am with a time of 1:59.516. In second place was the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari, and in third place was the GR Racing Porsche, making three manufacturers in the top three.
Free practice 2 is scheduled to start at 5:30pm local time.
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