Porsche top in Rookie test

Manama : World champions Porsche set the pace yesterday in the 2016 Rookie Test of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), held at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Neel Jani teamed up with Brendon Hartley to set the fastest time of the day in Porsche’s number 2 919 Hybrid. They clocked a best lap of one minute 42.137 seconds during the morning session, when they run for a total of 48 laps.

Their no.1 car of Gustavo Menezes, Timo Bernhard and Yannick Dalmas followed with a fastest time (+0.085 seconds) off the pace. Paul-Loup Chatin and Loic Duval in the Audi R18 were classified third (+0.547) in third. Porsche continued to lead in the afternoon with Hartley joining the trio of Menezes, Bernhard and Dalmas in the no. 1 car (1:42.159) with the fastest time while completing 65 laps of testing.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Stephan Sarrazin, Luis Felipe Derani and Dalmas were second on the time sheet with a best lap (+0.590) off the pace Porsche’s no. 2 car with Jani this time teaming up with Hartley and Bernhard (+0.740) were back in third.

A total of 17 cars were entered in the test, which followed Saturday’s hugely exciting and emotional Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain.

The Rookie Test was open to all teams to not only try out potential drivers for the coming season but also to start development work with tyre companies.

Teams competing in the WEC Rookie Test came from all categories, including the LMP1, LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am. This was the second successive year that Bahrain hosted the event.