Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Buemi-Nakajima-Hartley top FP1 times

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi-Kazuki Nakajima-Brendon Hartley kicked off their final race weekend of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) by topping the first Free Practice session this evening in the season-ending Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

It was a positive start for the trio in their GR010 Hybrid Hypercar as they make one last push for the drivers’ Hypercar world title against teammates Kamui Kobayashi-Mike Conway-Jose Maria Lopez in Toyota Gazoo’s #7 Hypercar.

Buemi-Nakajima-Harltey had a best lap time of one minute 48.490 seconds with 40 laps completed after 90 minutes under BIC’s bright state-of-the-art floodlights.

They were 0.408 seconds quicker than Kobayashi-Conway-Lopez, who are currently ahead in the drivers’ championship standings by 15 points.

Alpine Elf Matmut followed in third overall as well as in the Hypercar class with a best lap of 1:49.479 for the trio of Matthieu Vaxiviere-Andre Negrao-Nicolas Lapierre in the Alpine A480-Gibson.

Setting the pace amongst the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) 2 contenders was the Realteam Racing #70 crew of Norman Nato-Loic Duval-Esteban Garcia. They had a best lap of 1:50.792 in their Oreca 07-Gibson, going quicker than the #28 JOTA of Sean Gelael-Stoffel Vandoorne-Tom Blomqvist. Racing Team Nederland’s #29 car of Giedo van der Garde-Frist Van Eerd-Job Van Uitert followed third in class.

In the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) Pro category, Kevin Estre-Neel Jani-Michael Christensen of Porsche GT Team drove their #92 911 RSR-19 to a fastest lap of 1:57.657 for first place.
They finished on the practice classification ahead of teammates Frederic Makowiecki-Gianmaria Bruni-Richard Lietz in their #91 car. AF Corse’s Miguel Molina-Daniel Serra in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo were third quickest.

In the LMGTE Am class, Aston Martin Racing’s Paul Dalla Lana-Augusto Farfus-Marcos Gomes took the top spot in their #98 Vantage AMR with a best lap of 1:58.093. Team Project 1’s Egidio Perfetti-Matteo Cairoli-Riccardo Pera were second in their #56 911 RSR-19, while Cetilar Racing’s #47 crew of Antonio Fuoco-Roberto Lacorte-Giorgio Sernagiotto in their 488 GTE Evo were third.
A total of 31 cars took part in the session.