Aston Martin Thor Team set a blistering pace today in the opening practice of the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Their #009 crew of Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen, and Roman de Angelis, behind the wheel of their Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar, posted the fastest time in the 90-minute session of 1min 49.697secs while completing 41 laps.

AF Corse’s #83 trio of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Philip Hanson followed in second place 1.455s behind in their Ferrari 499P Hypercar, while Aston Martin Thor Team’s #007 crew of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, and Ross Gunn in their other Valkyrie were third-quickest 1.941s adrift.

Peugeot TotalEnergies’ #93 trio of Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, and Jean-Eric Vergne, driving their Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar, were classified fourth 2.014s from the top, while Ferrari AF Corse’s #51 triumvirate of Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado completed the Hypercars’ top five 2.044s behind the leaders.

In the LMGT3 category, Proton Competition’s Bernardo Sousa, Ben Tuck, and Benjamin Barker in their #77 Ford Mustang LMGT3 went fastest in 2:02.681. Akkodies ASP Team’s #87 crew of Petru Umbrarescu, Clemens Schmid, and Jose Maria Lopez in their Lexus RC F LMGT3 were second-quickest a mere 0.056s off the pace, while their teammates Arnold Robin, Finn Gehrsitz, and Ben Barnicoat in the #78 Lexus completed the top three 0.384s back.

Team WRT’s #46 crew of Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al Harthy, and Kelvin van der Linde in their BMW M4 LMGT3 ranked fourth 0.480s back, while The Bend Team WRT’s Yasser Shahin, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Augusto Farfus in their #31 BMW were fifth 0.628s behind.

The WEC field will return for a second practice this evening.