Peugeot outpace Toyota, Alpine in Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain FP1

Peugeot Totalenergies outpaced Hypercar title contenders Toyota Gazoo Racing and Alpine Elf Team in Free Practice One of this weekend’s Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain, the season-finale of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Bahrain International Circuit.

The #93 crew of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne led teammates Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller in the team’s #94 car to a one-two in the WEC’s opening 90-minute session.

Di Resta-Jensen-Vergne had a fastest lap time of one minute 50.536 seconds in their Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar, while their teammates followed 0.877 seconds back.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez were third overall 1.139s behind the pace-setters, while Alpine Elf Team’s #36 trio of Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere were fourth 1.260s back.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa completed the Hypercar field in fifth, 1.381s from first place.

The LMP2 class was led by the #83 AF Corse crew of Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo and Nicklas Nielsen with a best lap of 1:52.144 in their Oreca 07-Gibson.

The LMGTE Pro class saw the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen take Porsche GT Team to first place with a fastest lap of 1:58.025.

In the LMGTE Am category, Team Project 1’s Phillip Hyett, Gunnar Jeannette and Ben Barnicoat in the #51 Porsche 911 RSR-19 set the pace with a lap of 1:59.636.

WEC’s Free Practice Two follows this evening starting at 5.30pm.