Four-time Le Mans winner and current WEC FIA Driver’s Advisor driver Yannick Dalmas will complete his first laps in both the Porsche 919 Hybrid and Toyota TS050 today. His best time during the morning session, in which he drove the Porsche, was a 1:47.584.
Porsche and Toyota are testing 2017 components in today’s sessions, with Toyota also conducting tyre comparisons. Proton meanwhile is testing 2017 ELMS Dunlop tyres, with Richard Lietz on driving duties in both #78 KCMG and #88 Abu Dhabi Proton GTE Porsches.
Abu Dhabi Proton driver Khaled Al Qubaisi is testing the Aston Martin 2016 Pro-spec Vantage for the first time here in Bahrain after a late request to the AMR team, racking up 20 laps over the course of the day. “I want to get a feel for the car, as I’m undecided for next year,” he told DSC.
For 2016 Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup Champion Salih Yoluc, it was his first time driving the GTE Vantage ahead of its full-season ELMS and Le Mans plans for 2017 with a 2016 GTE Vantage. “It felt great, the balance was great, the brakes were more effective than I expected,” he told DSC. “It was good to get a first feel for the car. I’m now going to get about 10-15 more laps in before the end of the day, then I start to look ahead to the other tests I have planned ahead of next season.”
While it’s hard to read into any of the times, in the morning’s running, the quickest lap came from the #2 Porsche 919 with Neel Jani at the wheel, the Swiss 2016 WEC Drivers Champion managing a 1:42.137.
Of the three nominated rookies in the trio of Hybrids, Gustavo Menezes ran quickest for Porsche setting a 1:43.626 during his 30 laps, while Paul Loup Chatin’s best in the Audi after just seven laps following a technical problem with the car was a 1:43.910. It was disappointing for Chatin, but a relief for Audi which had faultless runs yesterday with both its cars. For Pipo Derani in the TS050, a 1:44.292 was the quickest of his 32 tours in the car.
Robert Kubica meanwhile turned his first laps in the ByKolles CLM. The ex-F1 star completed 11 laps, with a 1:51.862 his best time, just over two second’s off Pierre Kaffer’s fastest lap in the car during the session.
In LMP2 of the eight drivers who set times, Alex Brundle emerged the quickest, with a 1:51.184, over a second clear of European F3 driver Felix Serralles in the same G-Drive Oreca. Then on the screens were the trio of RGR Sport by Morand drivers, Will Owen leading the way with a 1:52.593 over Pro Mazda regular Patricio O’Ward (1:52.958) and Filipe Albuquerque (1:53.280). The pair of Manor Orecas and Signatech Alpine made up the bottom three. The best times from the drivers were a 1:54.373 achieved by AsLMS driver Weiron Tan in the #44 Manor, a 1:55.148 by Thomas Laurent and 1:57.004 by Mike Gausch.
Jonny Adam led the way in GTE Pro, the Aston factory driver setting a benchmark 1:58.774 in the #95 Aston, half a second quicker than GP2 driver Jordan King in the same car who managed a 1:59.304. Of the other notable names who took part in the session, their best times were as follows: Euan Hankey, 2:00.390, Thomas Flohr, 2:00.826, Salih Yoluc, 2:02.870 and Ahmad Al Harty – 2:03.741.
Alex Lynn also turned laps in the #95 Vantage. “It’s a great car, but I only had 10 laps, I didn’t get a chance to get much of a feel for it. My best was a 2:00.3.”
