Bahrain FP3: Toyota on top in final free practice; Porsche and JOTA quickest in LMGTE Pro and LMP2 respectively
Photo: WEC
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Bahrain FP3: Toyota on top in final free practice; Porsche and JOTA quickest in LMGTE Pro and LMP2 respectively

The No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar was fastest in the final free practice session for round five of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship – the BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain which gets underway at 11am tomorrow.

Porsche head LMGTE Pro, while No.28 JOTA takes top position in LMP2 for second consecutive session. Dempsey-Proton on top in LMGTE Am as air temperatures sizzle at 34.3 degrees celsius! 

Below are the main headlines from FP3.

Hypercar  

  • No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing continues to lead the times in Bahrain in final 60-mins of free practice as Kamui Kobayashi again sets the pace 
  • Recent Le Mans winner guides Toyota GR010 HYBRID Hypercar around BIC to set best lap of 1m48.978s 
  • Kobayashi out-paces No.8 sister Toyota HYBRID emerges fastest from second 90-minute free practice session for BAPCO 6 Hours of Bahrain 
  • No.8 Toyota completes session after receiving repairs after FP2 accident. Sebastien Buemi receives reprimand and four licence points deduction after incident with No.85 Iron Lynx Ferrari  
  • Brendon Hartley sets second fastest lap on 1m49.689s 
  • Alpine ELF Matmut Hypercar of Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao places third 1.1s from outright pace with Negrao peaking on a 1m50.166s best 
  • No.92 Porsche GT Team entry quickest in LMGTE Pro as Neel Jani posts a 1m58.230s lap in his 911 RSR-19 which he shares with Kevin Estre 
  • AF Corse Ferrari closer to Porsche as No.51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo heads No.52 AF Corse run car in third 
  • Alessandro Pier Guidi sets No.51 best with 1m58.399s best, while Miguel Molina peaks on 1m58.659s in No.52 car 
  • Porsche 1-4 as No.91, driven by Gimmi Bruni, laps with a 1m58.870s best 

LMP2  

  • Tom Blomqvist claims the best time in LMP2 class for JOTA for second successive session 
  • He laps early on with a best session time of 1m50.696s to go 0.652s quicker than United Autosports USA entry 
  • A 1m51.351s lap from Filipe Albuquerque means that reigning champions continue to lead the chase of No.28 
  • JOTA take 1st and 3rd best time as No.38 Oreca-Gibson of Anthony Davidson, Roberto Gonzalez and Antonio Felix da Costa places third but 0.999s off sister car 

LMGTE Am  

  • No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche heads LMGTE Am as Jaxon Evans sets 1m59.502s best lap 
  • Iron Lynx second and third in class as No.85 heads No.60 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo 
  • Sarah Bovy and Rino Mastronardi respectively set the times for Italian team  

Qualifying will get underway at 16h30.