Peugeot’s Vergne Paces FP3 in Bahrain

Photo: Javier Jimenez/DPPI

Jean-Eric Vergne put Peugeot Sport back atop the time sheets in the third and final Free Practice session prior to qualifying and Hyperpole for Saturday’s FIA World Endurance Championship season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The Frenchman turned a best lap time of 1:49.443 early in the 60-minute session to edge out the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Yifei Ye by 0.219 seconds.

While quicker than teammate Paul di Resta’s chart-topping time in FP1, Vergne’s lap was still more than one-second slower than Dries Vanthoor’s 1:48.257 set in Thursday’s night practice.

The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, driven by Daniil  Kvyat, was third on the timecharts in FP3, followed by the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of di Resta and the pair of Alpine A424s, which completed the top-six, headed by the No. 36 example with Mick Schumacher.

Antonio Fuoco put the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari seventh, with a time set prior to the car being parked due to a potential issue with a cable on the MGU.

The sister No. 51 Ferrari made a late session improvement to go eighth, with the two Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963s rounding out the top-ten.

LMGT3 was led by the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing of Alex Malykhin, who set a 2 :03.987 in the championship-elect No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

It was less than one-tenth clear of Arnold Robin’s No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3, which was second, ahead of the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 in third.

The session saw two Full Course Yellows, the first suspected to have been caused by a half-spin for the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which continued on-track, while the second one was reportedly for debris.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 3

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John