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WEC - Toyota Fastest on Day One in Bahrain

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17.11.17

An uninterrupted second Free Practice session held under the floodlights at the Bahrain International Circuit saw Toyota continue to dominate the opening day of the 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend with a 1-2 in Free Practice 2. 

 

This time it was the no8 Toyota TS050 which set the fastest lap thanks to Kazuki Nakajima’s 1m40.095 lap time, which was 2.2 seconds quicker than the best time in the earlier session and 0.598s ahead of the no7 TS050 with Jose Maria Lopez posting a 1m40.693.  The two Porsche 919s were only just behind the no7 Toyota with the no2 919 of Brendon Hartley setting a 1m40.773, just 0.08s behind the second placed TS050, with the no1 car less than a tenth behind their teammates.

In the LMGTE Pro class it was an Aston Martin 1-2 in the final race weekend for the Vantage V8.  The 24 Hours of Le Mans winning no97 Vantage was the quicker of the two cars with Darren Turner setting a 1n57.014, 0.406s ahead of their Danish teammates in the no95 car and 1.5 seconds quicker than the best time set in FP1.  It was Ferrari 3rd and 4th fastest with no71 ahead of the championship leading no51 F488 with lap times of 1m57.925 and 1m58.366 respectively.

After finishing last in FP1 the championship leading no31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca went quickest in FP2 with Bruno Senna posting a 1m47.664, 0.5 seconds ahead of their teammates in the no13 Oreca, with Nelson Piquet Jr setting a 1m48.238.  Championship challengers in the no38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca were third quickest, with Thomas Laurent posting a 1m49.022 lap, 1.5 seconds adrift of the best time set by their only rivals for the 2017 LMP2 title.

The no66 Clearwater Racing Ferrari was the quickest of the five LMGTE Am cars with Matt Griffin getting a good run to set a 1m59.773, 0.432s ahead of the no54 Spirit of Race F488 with Francesco Castellacci posting the best time.  The no98 Aston Marin Racing Vantage was third fastest with Pedro Lamy once again quickest of the three drivers with a 2m00.525, 0.7s behind the leading Ferrari.

The third and final Free Practice session of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship will take place tomorrow morning.  The 60-minute session is due to get underway at 11:20 local / 09:20 CET.