Peugeot returned to the top of the times in final practice for this weekend’s season finale of the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain.
Jean-Eric Vergne set the pace in the Friday morning Free Practice 1 session aboard the #93 Peugeot 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercar, following up on Paul di Resta’s table-topping performance in FP1 on Thursday.
The Frenchman’s 1m49.443s set at the beginning of the 60-minute session gave him a margin of two tenths over second-placed Yifei Ye, who got down to a 1m40.662s aboard the customer AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P LMH.
Lamborghini took third place courtesy of a 1m50.014s from Daniil Kvyat in the solo Iron Lynx SC63 LMDh.
Peugeot, which has been given a Balance of Performance break for the Bahrain event, backed up its front-running FP3 pace with fourth position from di Resta in the second of the 9X8 LMHs.
The ex-Formula 1 driver’s 1m50.028s put him just one hundredth of a second behind the Lamborghini.
#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, #93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen
Photo by: Andreas Beil
The two Alpine A424 LMDhs finished fifth and sixth: Mick Schumacher’s 1m50.612s giving him a half second margin over Ferdinand Habsburg in the sister car run by the Signatech squad.
Antonio Fuoco placed the best of the factory Ferrari 499Ps in seventh and the sister AF-run works car jumped to eighth late in the session in Antonio Giovinazzi’s hands.
Fuoco only completed seven laps before pitting because of a suspected issue with a cable in the front Motor Generator Unit (MGU) and the car did not return to the track.
The two customer Jota Porsche 963 LMDhs rounded out the top 10 with Norman Nato just shading Oliver Rasmussen.
Toyota took 11th with the fastest of its pair of GR010 HYBRID LMHs with Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel, while the championship-leading factory Porsche 963 was 12th in the hands of Andre Lotterer.
BMW, which led the way in FP2 on Thursday, ended up 17th and 18th with its pair of WRT-run M Hybrid V8s.
The #92 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3-R took top spot in LMGT3 with Alex Malykhin at the wheel.
The Belarusian, who claimed the LMGT3 class title last time out in the WEC at Fuji in September with team-mates Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm, set a 2m03.987s lap to end up just five hundredths quicker than Arnold Robin in the fastest of the Auto Sport Promotion Lexus RC F GT3s.
Qualifying for the Bahrain 8 Hours kicks off at 16:00 local time on Friday.