Brendon Hartley has set the fastest time in opening practice for the Eight Hours of Bahrain.
The Kiwi posted a time of 01:48:490 in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, 0.408s faster than the time set by team-mate Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 sister car.
Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima trail their team-mates by fifteen points going into this Saturday’s title decider.
Nicolas Lapierre rounded out the top three overall in the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson, nearly a second off Hartley’s quickest time.
Norman Nato was fastest in LMP2 in the #70 Realteam Racing ORECA 07-Gibson, marking the first time the Swiss-flagged outfit have topped a session in the WEC.
Nato was just 0.028s clear of the #28 JOTA ORECA, with Racing Team Nederland third in class.
Ferrari wait it out
Porsche led GTE Pro one-two in a session that did not see the two AF Corse Ferraris out of the garage for over an hour.
Neel Jani set the fastest lap in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, posting a 01:57:657 that was 0.356s faster than team-mate Richard Lietz in the #91 sister car.
The two Porsches were well ahead of the Ferraris, who both spent over an hour in their garages without setting a single lap. Once they did go out on track, it was for sporadic running.
The fastest of the two was Miguel Molina in the #52 car, but both cars were three seconds slower than their German rivals and slower than all of the GTE Am runners.
In GTE Am, NorthWest AMR topped the standings as Augusto Farfus led the way with a time of 01:58:093 in the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
The Brazilian veteran outpaced Team Project 1’s Matteo Cairoli by 0.228s, with Antonio Fuoco third in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
Practice for the Eight Hours of Bahrain continues at 09:00 am local time on Friday.
