After coming so close to scoring his first hypercar podium in Saturday’s finale, Jota led the first two hours of running at the Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday, with Will Stevens leading the team’s lone 38 He recorded the fastest time in the number Porsche 963 customer LMDh car.
Although Stevens’ time of 1 minute 48.625 seconds at the start of the session was two seconds slower than Brendon Hartley’s pole position time in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, Jota finished the rest of the time 8 tenths slower. I beat it by a second.
Stevens completed just five laps in the early morning before handing over the car to Formula E ace Norman Nato, who set a best time of 1 minute 50.870 seconds on his first run in the LMDh car.
Second place on the timesheet was taken by Cadillac with Alex Lynn’s time of 1 minute 49.444 seconds. Similar to Jota, Cadillac let full-timer Lin set the initial baseline for the car before handing driving duties over to rookie and this year’s GTE Am champion Nicola Varone.
Vallone, Corvette’s Silver-rated driver in this year’s WEC, completed 28 laps behind the wheel of the team’s only V-Series.R, gradually improving his time to 1:50.048.
Ferrari had a total of three drivers running in the #51 499P this morning, with Alessandro Pier Guidi’s time of 1 minute 49.560 seconds putting the Italian manufacturer in third place.
Photo credit: Shameem Farhas
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P – Hybrid: Alessandro Pierre Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Former F2 driver Robert Schwartzman’s best time for Ferrari was 1:51.479, but Lilloo Waddu was even further off the pace (1:56) despite completing just 11 laps. 056 seconds).
For Proton customer Porsche, René Binder finished fifth after an early effort of 1 minute 49.704 seconds, while Julian Andlauer set a best time of 1 minute 52.339 seconds in a 12-lap stint.
Peugeot finished seventh courtesy of test driver Marte Jacobsen, handing over the reins of the No. 93 9X8 to Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne is expected to move to the full-time seat next year, replacing Gustavo Menezes.
The factory Porsche was seventh on the timesheets after Laurens Vanthoor lapped the circuit in 1 minute 50.464 seconds.
Vanthoor completed two stints in the #5 963 before handing the car over to newly crowned DTM champion Thomas Planing, who clocked a 1:51.615 on his first run behind the wheel of the Porsche LMDh. He recorded a decent time.
In the morning, three drivers tested the title-winning Toyota GR010 Hybrid, with Lexus’ Ben Barnicoat being the fastest of the three, finishing 8th on the team with a time of 1:51.728.
In LMP2, Le Mans 24 Hours winner Clement Novarac in the Inter Europol Oreca 07 led the time with a time of 1 minute 54.283 seconds, 0.685 ahead of BMW factory driver Charles Wierts in the #41 WRT. I made a second difference.
Photo credit: Shameem Farhas
#31 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson: Valentino Rossi
Rossi took the wheel of WRT’s second Oreca in the morning session, improving his time by three seconds between his first and last run, finishing in a time of 1 minute 55 seconds, 0.760 seconds behind Werz. He recorded a best time of 728.
The United Autosports team finished fourth with Oliver Jarvis’ early run, and Daniel Schneider took over driving duties from the 2022 IMSA champion.
Mikkel Pedersen completed the five-car LMP2 field in his Prema Oreca.
In GTE Am, Lorenzo Patrese set the pace in his Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, with a closing time of 1 minute 59.024 seconds beating Corvette driver Nicky Catsburg’s time by 0.429 seconds.
AF Corse’s two self-entered cars finished third and fourth in the narrow GTE field, with Nicola Marinangeli finishing more than a second ahead of Christopher Ulrich.
Postseason rookie testing continues this afternoon in Bahrain, with three hours of driving scheduled between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. local time.