WEC season finale: Aston Martin impresses in FP1, BMW dominates in FP2 under floodlights.
The start of the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale, the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, saw changing fastest lap times and surprisingly strong performances from teams outside the title contenders. In particular, the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar from the Heart of Racing Team and the BMW M Team WRT V8 set the pace on the 5.412-kilometre Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).
Hypercar: Surprising results in practice
The Aston Martin Valkyrie caused a stir in the first free practice session on Thursday afternoon. The #009 hypercar, driven by Marco Sørensen, set the fastest time of the 90-minute session with a lap time of 1:49.697 minutes. This underlined the significantly increased pace of the British hypercar towards the end of its debut season. The title contenders were still holding back, with the #83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Robert Kubica (+1.4 seconds) being the fastest title contender. In between, the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 moved up to third place. The two TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010s took fifth (#8) and sixth (#7) places.
As darkness fell during the second free practice session, the BMW M team took command. Sheldon van der Linde improved the fastest time of the day in the #20 BMW M V8 to 1:48.780 minutes – almost a whole second faster than the FP1 best time. However, the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie remained close behind in second place, just 0.262 seconds behind the BMW. Rounding out the top three was the #93 Peugeot with Jean-Éric Vergne, who secured third place in his final weekend for the team. The title rivals showed mixed performances: championship leader #51 Ferrari AF Corse finished sixth, while #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport with Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor finished the practice session in 16th place in the Hypercar class.
LMGT3: Lexus and Ford go head to head
Various brands also dominated the sessions in the LMGT3 class, promising an exciting title fight. In FP1, the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang with Ben Barker (2:02.681 minutes) set the first fastest time, followed by the two Lexus RC F LMGT3s of the Akkodis ASP Team (#87 and #78) in second and third place. The championship-leading Porsche (Manthey #92) finished sixth.
In FP2 under floodlights, the Akkodis ASP Team struck back: Finn Gehrsitz drove the #78 Lexus to an impressive 2:02.613 minutes, almost half a second faster than the competition. The Iron Dames (#85 Porsche) drove to a strong second place with Rahel Frey. Of the title rivals, the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari improved significantly to eighth place, while the leading #92 Manthey Porsche fell back to 12th place.
The third free practice session will take place on Friday at 12:00 local time (10:00 CET). Qualifying for the 8h Bahrain will start at 16:00 local time. Further information on the race weekend can be found in our overview of the season finale.