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Practice report

Bahrain WEC: Kobayashi remains on top in final practice

Kamui Kobayashi again topped the times for Toyota in final practice for this weekend's Bahrain 6 Hours FIA World Endurance Championship round.

Watch: WEC: Kobayashi remains on top in final practice

The Japanese driver posted the fastest time of the meeting so far with his first flying lap during a qualifying simulation at the start of the 60-minute Free Practice 3 session. 

His 1m48.978s aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was just under a tenth quicker than his best from FP2 on Friday morning, a session held in cooler conditions. 

Kobayashi ended up seven tenths clear of teammate Brendon Hartley in the sister Toyota. 

The New Zealander didn't set a representative time on his first flying lap after a Full Course Yellow virtual safety car was called because the High Class Racing Oreca LMP2 was slow on track. 

Hartley subsequently posted a 1m49.689s on his third flier on his fresh set of Michelin tyres after the track went green. 

The #8 Toyota had been ready to go from the beginning of the session after a front corner and the nose were changed after Sebastien Buemi's clash with Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Lynx GTE Am class Ferrari in FP2.

The Alpine A480-Gibson LMP1 car was third fastest in the three-car Hypercar class. 

Andre Negrao's posted the grandfathered P1 car's best time of the week with a 1m50.166s, which was just three hundredths quicker than Matthieu Vaxiviere managed in the Friday morning session. 

Crash of #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

Crash of #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Britsh JOTA team maintained its monopoly of top spot in LMP2 in Bahrain, Tom Blomqvist's 1m50.696s aboard the #28 Oreca 07 putting him more than half a second clear of the pack. 

Filipe Albuquerque took second in the #22 United Autosports Oreca with a 1m51.351s, while Antonio Felix da Costa was third in the second #38 JOTA entry with a 1m51.695s.

Renger van der Zande claimed fourth in the #34 Inter Europol Oreca, while Robert Kubica led the Pro/Am sub-class for the Danish High Class squad.

Neel Jani was quickest in GTE Pro for Porsche with a 1m58.230s, while Alessandro Pier Guidi was less than two tenths behind in the best of Ferraris.

Pier Guidi's 1m58.399s was nearly a second faster than the previous best from one of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos over the course of the three practice sessions, but the faster of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs was nearly two seconds slower than in FP2 on Friday morning. 

Miguel Molina was third in the second of the factory Ferraris, while Gianmaria Bruni brought up the rear of GTE Pro in the other works Porsche 911 RSR run by the Manthey team. 

Jaxon Evans was fastest in GTE Am for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche squad.

Qualifying for Saturday's Bahrain 6 Hours is due to start 4:30pm local time. 

The qualifying for WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tvClick here for more information

FP3 results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'48.978
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'49.689 0.711
3 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'50.166 1.188
4 28 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.696 1.718
5 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.351 2.373
6 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.695 2.717
7 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.061 3.083
8 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Poland Robert Kubica
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.208 3.230
9 70 Switzerland Esteban Garcia
France Loic Duval
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.477 3.499
10 31 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.499 3.521
11 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.546 3.568
12 21 Sweden Henrik Hedman
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.708 4.730
13 1 Germany Sophia Flörsch
Netherlands Beitske Visser
France Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.178 6.200
14 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
India Kush Maini
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'57.445 8.467
15 92 France Kevin Estre
Switzerland Neel Jani
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'58.230 9.252
16 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.399 9.421
17 52 Brazil Daniel Serra
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.659 9.681
18 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'58.870 9.892
19 77 Germany Christian Ried
Australia Jaxon Evans
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.502 10.524
20 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Belgium Sarah Bovy
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.858 10.880
21 60 Italy Rino Mastronardi
Italy Andrea Piccini
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.987 11.009
22 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.987 11.009
23 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.024 11.046
24 88 United Arab Emirates Khaled Al Qubaisi
Belgium Adrien de Leener
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.060 11.082
25 33 United States Ben Keating
Luxembourg Dylan Pereira
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.174 11.196
26 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.224 11.246
27 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Brazil Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.236 11.258
28 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Italy Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.278 11.300
29 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'00.451 11.473
30 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.801 11.823
31 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Australia Scott Andrews
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.457 12.479

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