Peugeot make rousing Hypercar debut in Bahrain!
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Peugeot Totalenergies made a sensational debut at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) yesterday, setting the pace in the first two practice sessions of the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The #93 crew of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne steered their Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar to the top of the timesheet in both of the day’s second 90-minute sessions, held in contrasting conditions at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.
Both times they outpaced the Hypercar title-contending crews of Toyota Gazoo Racing and Alpine Elft Team. In the second practice held in cooler conditions under the bright floodlights at BIC, the Di Resta-Jensen-Vergne trio posted a best lap time of one minute 49.613 seconds.
They were less than a hundredth-of-a-second quicker than their Toyota and Alpine rivals. Toyota’s #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa were 0.045 seconds off the leaders’ pace in their GR010 Hybrid, while Alpine’s Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere in their #36 A480-Gibson were third 0.077s back.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez followed in fourth overall 0.160s from first, while the other Hypercar of Peugeot Totalenergies—featuring Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller—finished eighth on the classification with a 2.534s gap from the top.
Leaders in the LMP2 class were the AF Corse #83 crew of Alessio Rovera, Francois Perrodo and Nicklas Nielsen in their Oreca 07-Gibson with a fastest lap of 1:51.787. The LMGTE Pro class saw the Porsche GT Team duo of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen in their #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 take the frontrunners’ position with a fastest lap of 1:57.192, while Team Project 1’s #46 trio of Mikkel Pedersen, Matteo Cairoli and Nicolas Leutwiler set the pace amongst the LMGTE Am runners with a fastest time of 1:59.717 also in a Porsche 911 RSR-19.
In the day’s first practice held under the afternoon sun, Di Resta-Jensen-Vergne led teammates Duval-Menezes-Muller to a one-two, clocking a fastest lap time of 1:50.536. Their teammates followed 0.877s back.
Conway-Kobayashi-Lopez followed in third overall 1.139s behind the pace-setters, while Negrao-Lapierre-Vaxiviere were fourth 1.260s back. Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa completed the Hypercar field in fifth overall 1.381s from first.
The LMP2 class was led by Rovera-Perrodo-Nielsen with a best lap of 1:52.144. The LMGTE Pro class saw Estre-Christensen take Porsche GT Team to first place with a fastest lap of 1:58.025. In the LMGTE Am category, Team Project 1’s Phillip Hyett, Gunnar Jeannette and Ben Barnicoat in the #51 Porsche 911 RSR-19 set the pace with a lap of 1:59.636.
The WEC field returns for a third practice session today from 11am for an hour. That will pave the way for Qualifying later in the day starting from 4.50pm, which will set the grid for the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain tomorrow starting at 2pm.
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