Over five hours of track time today, Ferrari F1 reserve driver Robert Shwartzman emerged quickest of the day with a 1:48.559 in the #51 Ferrari 499P.
He was 66 thousandths quicker than Will Stevens in the HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche 963, his time set in the morning session as a reference time for Norman Nato, who reeled off a 1:49.130 in the same car during the afternoon session. That was good enough to put him third quickest overall.
“I was finally able to drive the Ferrari Hypercar, it was a very interesting day and I am very satisfied with both the performance and the speed with which I was able to adapt to this car,” commented Shwartzman after the afternoon test. “To have set the best time at the end of the day makes me happy.”
Lilou Wadoux was fifth fastest in her second consecutive Bahrain Rookie Test appearance. Last year she sampled the title-winning Toyota, this time she tried out the 499P. Her best time was a 1:49.488.
Amongst the remaining rookies in Hypercar, seventh fastest was ELMS LMP2 regular Rene Binder with a 1:49.704 in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche. Nico Varrone completed a 1:50.048 in the #2 Cadillac to go eighth quickest.
Julien Andlauer lapped the circuit in 1:50.308 in the Proton Porsche. This run came after a recent test at Portimao in one of Proton’s LMP2 cars.
Malthe Jakobsen was a rookie last year with Peugeot. He joined the team again, now as the official development driver, and managed a 1:50.568, a time quicker than the team’s fastest lap in yesterday’s race.
Thomas Preining set a 1:50.603 in the #5 Porsche Penske 963, whilst Ben Barnicoat was the fastest of a trio of drivers trying out the #7 GR010 HYBRID. His 1:50.740. was set without the benefit of a reference time from one of the TGR factory drivers. It topped the efforts of Josh Pierson (1:51.085) and Barnicoat’s AVS IMSA GTD Pro teammate Jack Hawksworth (1:51.316).
2023 ELMS Champion Kyffin Simpson was next up with a 1:51.380 in the Cadillac V-Series.R with Job Van Uitert the final taker amongst the non-full-season Hypercar drivers. He lapped the #4 Vanwall in 1:51.680, running significantly faster than the car managed in the race yesterday after hitting early trouble.
Just five LMP2 cars took part in the test, the times headed by F2 driver Clement Novalak, who set a 1:54.285 in the morning aboard the #31 Inter Europol Competition ORECA. Charles Weerts ended up second and third fastest, driving both cars, with Valentino Rossi close behind.
In the #9 PREMA ORECA, Harry Tincknell set reference times for both Mikkel Pedersen (1:57.260) and PJ Hyett (1:57.570), the AO Racing driver set to form part of a two-car Asian Le Mans Series effort with the ex-PREMA cars next month.
Four GTE cars took part in the test. The times were topped by Lorenzo Patrese in the #83 Richard Mille AF Corse 488, with a 1:58.261. Second quickest of the rookies in the #54 AF Corse car was Nicola Marinangeli with a 2:00.091.
Corvette Racing fielded nominated rookie Antoine Doquin, who managed a 2:01.035. The late addition to the roster, Timur Boguslavskiy, set a 2:01.450.
Finally, the #21 AF Corse 488 GTE EVO was driven throughout the day by WEC returnee Christoph Ulrich. The affable Swiss posted a 2:01.498 in the morning session, finishing the day with the bittersweet double of a final red flag in GTE history for a minor off at Turn 10, before becoming the final driver in GTE Am to complete a competitive lap.
The #21 was the final car to pit, at the end of the final official session for this magnificent class.
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Featured image courtesy of Ferrari
