As the afternoon drew to a close at the Sakhir circuit, the moon appeared in the blue sky - just as dusk fell towards the end of the 90-minute session. The heat, however, remained stifling despite a light breeze. Competitors took to the track as soon as the green flag was waved for the first free practice session, very much dominated by Toyota.
Alexander Wurz set the fastest lap mid-session with a 1:47.727, a time which was never beaten despite all the efforts of his rivals, beginning with the two Audis. The Japanese constructor’s No.7 TS030 once again showed its potential, no matter whether it was in the hands of Nicolas Prost or Alex Wurz, relegating to second place the quickest Audi R18 e-tron quattro, the No.2 of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, by almost a second. The No.1 Audi of double 24 Hours of Le Mans winners André Lotterer and Benôit Tréluyer had to be content with third place a further half a second back, having lost some track time as the mechanics worked on the suspension.
Alex Wurz, No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid: “The dominant impression of today is that it is pretty hot. The track started out dusty and that causes a few set-up and balance issues which we are trying to filter out in order to optimise the car for the race. This is a tricky circuit because the track conditions evolve so much over an event; that is the challenge for the weekend. Even though we won in Brazil, we must remember that here in Bahrain we start from scratch again. We need to prepare the car perfectly again and we all have to be on top of our game.”
It was Danny Watts and his No.21 HPD ARX 03a Honda of Strakka Racing who was quickest amongst the LMP1 privateer teams, the British driver chasing the tail of the No.1 Audi with a time of 1:49.798, less than seven tenths of a second behind the German prototype. Strakka headed the No.12 Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota, driven by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost, by less than three tenths, and there was then a gap of more than a second between the Swiss team and the second HPD-Honda in the category, the No.22 of British team JRM.
In LMP2, Alex Brundle confirmed his speed by setting the fastest time of 1:54.082 at the wheel of the No.35 Morgan-Judd of OAK Racing. The son of Martin Brundle, the former F1 driver and winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, led the way ahead of Nicolas Minassian and the No.49 Oreca 03-Nissan of Pecom Racing by three tenths, and almost six tenths ahead of the No.44 Starworks Motorsports HPD ARX 03b of Stéphane Sarrazin.
The LMGTE Pro category is far from being the biggest on the grid, but it is once again very tight between the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella at the front with a lap of 2:02.239, and the No.77 Team Felbermayr-Proton of Richard Lietz, just two tenths behind. Stefan Mücke trailed by a mere four tenths in his No.97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8.
Finally, in the LMGTE Am class, Rui Aguas, back behind the wheel of the No.61 AF Corse-Waltrip Ferrari for the Middle-Eastern race, was the quickest at 2:04.077. The two Larbre Compétition Corvettes, the No.70 of Jean-Philippe Belloc and the No.50 of Fernando Rees, shared the honours for second and third in class.
The second Free Practice session starts at 2030 hours (local) - 1930h CET / 1830 BST.
Fiona Miller
Photo: SAKHIR (BAHRAIN), BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT, 6 HOURS OF BAHRAIN, THURSDAY, 27TH SEPTEMBER 2012. The No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid led the way in the first practice session for the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
