Peugeot TotalEnergies’ No. 94 9X8 topped the timing screens in the first Free Practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship 8 Hours of Bahrain, which was held in bright, sunny conditions.
The best time came early on in the running from Paul di Resta, a 1m50.837s, which was 0.49 up on the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Frédéric Makowiecki, who was the only other driver to set a sub-1m51s lap. His tour also came with more than an hour left on the clock. Making it three brands in the top three was the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, which finished two-tenths adrift with a 1m51.041s.
The sister 9X8 added to Peugeot’s encouraging start to the meeting by slotting in fourth, ahead of the championship-leading No. 6 Penske Porsche that ended up fifth with a 1m51.116s.
Further down the order in eighth and ninth, the two BMW M Hybrid V8s enjoyed a productive session, completing 85 combined laps, the most of any team in the class.
The Fuji pole-setting Cadillac V-Series.R ended up 18th with the lowest total (32 laps) and a time 1.s off the pace.
LMGT3 had AKKODIS ASP’s No. 78 Lexus RC F LMGT3 leading the way, Kelvin van der Linde setting a 2m02.079s.
Alessio Rovera wound up three tenths off in the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, but quicker than Matteo Carioli, who put the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan third with a in the second half of the session. This pushed the Fuji-winning No. 54 sister AF Corse 296 LMGT3 to fourth.
There were no major dramas in the 90-minute session, which was only interrupted once by a brief full-course yellow.
Free Practice 2 is set to begin at 5:30pm local time.