FIA WEC, 8 Hours Bahrain: Toyota dominates in qualifying in Sahkir. The Ferraris chase

The Ferrari weekend gets off to an uphill start straight away in the final of FIA WEC of Sahkir, in Bahrain. After the tests are the Toyota GR010 Hybrid to monopolize operations with the first half of the car Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa with a margin of just under half a second over his teammates Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez. The “surprise” of the third place achieved by the team stands out Cadillac of Bamber, Lynn and Westbrook, just seven tenths behind the Toyota on pole. The 499P Hypercar they will be forced to chase starting from the third row: for Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen fifth place behind Porsche Penske of Estre, Lotterer and VanthoorWhile Pier Guidi, Calado and Giovinazzi they will start in sixth position. Even in Bahrain the difficult times continue Peugeot who will start respectively in tenth position with Di Resta/Jensen/Vergne and in the eleventh with Duval/Menezes/Muller. Twelfth la Vanwallthe only private Hypercar remaining after the disengagement of the Glickenhaus: Guerrieri, Vautier and Briscoe have tried everything but they complain a gap of more than four seconds to the leaders.

FERRARI, DIFFICULT QUALIFICATIONS

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However, the optimism at Ferrari remains unchanged despite difficult trials. Antonio Fuoco claims that “Qualifying was complicated, even though we tried to give our best. The race will be long and not easy, and we will have to be perfect given the level of the opponents”. He also doesn’t give up Alessandro Pier Guidi“captain” of the 499P which will start from sixth position at the start: “We are where we thought we would be after free practice. They did well in qualifying, even if at the moment we are far from being able to fight for success. After Le Mans we underperformed our rivals and this is a fact. We will try to give our best in the race as always”.

UNITED ON POLE IN THE “LAST” OF LMP2

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The last pole of the class LMP2 in the history of the FIA ​​WEC is of Pierson/Blomqvist/Jarvis of United Autosports, with a margin of just two tenths over the crew Alpine Elf Team formed by the French Milesi/Canal/Vaxiviere. Third place in class for the best Oreca 07 of Team WRT driven by Gelael/Habsburg/Frijnsahead of the identical LMP2 of the trio Vector Sports formed by Cullen/Kaiser/Aubry. In the shade there Prema Racing which places in sixth place Ugran/Viscaal/Correa and the eighth Pin/Bortolotti and ex-F1 Daniil Kvyat. Tenth place for Robert Kubica which shares the second Oreca 07 of Team WRT with Rui Andrade and Louis Deletraz.

IRON DAMES, AGAIN POLE IN LM GTE AM!

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By now Iron Dames they are a real powerhouse of the LM GTE Am: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey they obtained category pole with their Porsche 911 RSR-19, less than three tenths behind the surprising Aston Martin that the Japanese D’Station Racing lines up for Talbot/Stevenson/Fuiji. The Vantage AMRs are the real surprise of the weekend in Bahrain, also given the third place of the example fielded by the Omani team ORT by TF driven by Eastwood/Al Harthy/Dinan. The Ferrari 488s, on their farewell step in the FIA ​​WEC in light of the upcoming introduction of the 296, are not shining in Sahkir at the moment. The best is that of Ticino Kessel Racing Of Kimura/Masson/Serra which occupies fourth place in class, ahead of the Corvettes Of Keating/Varrone/Catsburg. The 488 of AF Corse they struggle with Castellacci/Flohr/Rigon sevenths, Perez Companc/Wadoux/Rovera ninth and Cozzolino/Mann/Dezoteux thirteenths. In the rear are the Porsche 911 RSR-19s of the other Italians in the race: Matteo Cairoli is tenth with the Project-1 specimen, Riccardo Pera eleventh with that of GR Racing e Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni twelfth with the Iron Lynx car shared with the Belgian Alessio Picariello. The focus now is all on the competitionwho will leave at 12 Italian. The only certainty is represented by weather forecast: are excluded sudden rain showers like the one that ruined yesterday’s free practice…