Peugeot set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.
Former Formula 1 driver Paul di Resta set a time of 1m50.837s in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH at a hot and sunny Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday afternoon, eclipsing the previous benchmark of Frederic Makowiecki in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh by just 0.049s.
Most of the quickest times were set at the beginning of the 90-minute session, as the track remained relatively green due to dust and high temperatures.
It meant that the pace of the lead cars was about a second down from the corresponding session in 2023, when Toyota led the way with a best time of 1m49.856s amid heavy wind.
Only two cars were able to lap in the 1m50s bracket, the #94 Peugeot and the #5 Porsche, with the #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi ending up fractionally down in third with a time of 1m51.041s.
Peugeot managed to get both its cars inside the top five, with Jean-Eric Vergne ending up another 0.010s adrift of the Ferrari in fourth place.
The championship-leading #6 Porsche wound up fifth courtesy of Laurens Vanthoor, ahead of the sole factory Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Daniil Kvyat.
Toyota’s charge was led by Sebastien Buemi in seventh place, four tenths down on the pacesetting Peugeot, with Mike Conway ending up 10th in the sister #7 GR010 HYBRID
The two Toyotas were separated by the two factory-entered WRT BMW entries, with Rene Rast in the #20 M Hybrid V8 edging out the #15 car driven by Rafaelle Marciello.
All top 10 cars were able to lap within a second of the outright pace.
The best of the Alpine A424 LMDh entries finished 14th with Jules Gounon, while Cadillac kicked off the weekend in 18th and last place, as Earl Bamber set a best lap of 1m52.302s in the #2 Chip Ganassi V-Series.R.
Lexus fastest in LMGT3
DTM runner-up Kelvin van der Linde propelled the ASP Lexus squad to the top of the times in the LMGT3 class with an early effort of 2m02.079s in the #78 RC F GT3.
That was a quarter of a second quicker than what Alessio Rovera managed in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, while Matteo Cairoli was further behind in third on returning to WEC competition in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
Davide Rigon was classified fourth in the second of the two Ferrari LMGT3 entries, beating the top Proton Ford Mustang GT3 of Benjamin Barker by just 0.023s
Klaus Bachler ended up dead last in the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 that wrapped up the LMGT3 title at Fuji last month.
The session was completed without any major interruptions, although a virtual safety car was deployed with 30 minutes left on the clock to complete some system checks.