Aston Martin and Ford set the early pace in Bahrain
The ever-improving Aston Martin Valkyrie continued to impress in FIA World Endurance Championship competition in FP1 for this weekend’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale, as Marco Sørensen posted the quickest lap time of the 90-minute session.
The finale to the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season takes place at the BAPCO Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain this Saturday, with all of the titles still up grabs in both Hypercar and LMGT3
The first free practice session took place on the challenging 5.4km track in warm and sunny conditions, as 36 of the world’s most spectacular endurance sportscars roared into action
Heading the times in the 90-minute session was the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar run by The Heart of Racing. Marco Sørensen punched in a 1m49.697s lap, as the increased pace and form continues for the American-entered, British-based squad.
Roman de Angelis again joined Sørensen and Alex Riberas in the team for this weekend’s eight-hour finale in Bahrain
Fastest amongst the title challengers was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, as Robert Kubica lapped 1.4s off the leading Aston Martin; togethe with team-mates Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye, the Pole is looking to hunt down the 13-point gap held by #51 crew of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi
The title-fighting pair were separated, in fourth place, by the #93 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hypercar of Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Éric Vergne.
Rounding out the top six in Hypercar was the first of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 Hybrid Hypercars. The #8 led the similar #7 machine by just 0.086s, as the Japanese manufacturer gets set to hand over the Hypercar Manufacturers’ crown that it has held in WEC since 2021.
Alpine claimed eighth position with the #36 Hypercar driven by Mick Schumacher, Jules Gounon and Frédéric Makowiecki
Completing the top ten were the #50 Ferrari AF Corse machine and the highest-placed of the Porsches, the #5 963 in which young charger Laurin Heinrich is joining regulars Julien Andlauer and Mathieu Jaminet for the event
LMGT3
A tight battle in LMGT3 played out immediately, as the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang led the way with Ben Barker claiming the best time of the session on a 2m02.681s lap in the car he shares with Ben Tuck and Bernardo Sousa
That lap just eclipsed the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus driven by Petru Umbrărescu, José María López and Clemens Schmid by a mere 0.0565s
The sister Akkodis-run LMGT3 entry of Ben Barnicoat, Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin backed up the Lexus potential in third position
Team WRT ended the session fourth as Valentino Rossi, Ahmed Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde aim to improve upon their 2025 season-best result of second which they achieved at both Imola and COTA
The sister BMW M4 LMGT3, running under The Bend Team WRT moniker is fifth with Yasser Shahin, Timur Boguslavskiy and Augusto Farfus sharing driving duties
The first of the three title protagonists, the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche, placed sixth as Richard Lietz aims to secure his second FIA WEC title this weekend alongside Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera
Their nearest rival, 11 points in arrears, is the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari crewed by Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and François Hériau, which ended up 18th and last in-class in FP1
An outsider for the title, the #81 Corvette of Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom Van Rompuy wound up tenth, as TF Sport forms its preparations for a championship challenge in Bahrain this weekend, albeit with 24 points to make up on the #92 Porsche
FP2 will get underway at 17:00 local time (15:00 CET).
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