Kobayashi Quickest Again in FP3

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued to set the mark in Free Practice 3 with Kamui Kobayashi quickest again ahead of qualifying for Saturday’s 6 Hours of Bahrain.

The Japanese driver reeled off a best lap of 1:48.978 in the 60-minute session to edge out the sister No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid by 0.711 seconds.

The No. 8 Toyota returned to action after Sebastien Buemi’s accident in FP2, which he was deemed responsible for the incident with Sarah Bovy’s No. 85 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo that resulted in extensive left-front damage to the Toyota.

Andre Negrao managed to keep the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson ahead of the LMP2 pace-setters with the third quickest time overall. 

The No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson of Tom Blomqvist led the way in LMP2 thanks to a 1:50.696 lap time, edging out United Autosports’ Flipe Albuquerque and JOTA’s Antonio Felix Da Costa that ended the session second and third quickest, respectively.

GTE-Pro was again led by the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Neel Jani, although the gap to the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari has reduced to just 0.169 seconds thanks to a quick time from Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Jani’s 1:58.230 lap time, however, was nearly two seconds slower than co-driver Kevin Estre’s time from the morning while on a qualifying sim run.

Jaxon Evans, meanwhile, posted the quickest time in GTE-Am in the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche.

The session saw only a single Full Course Yellow, for a slow No. 20 High Class Racing Oreca in the opening minutes.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 4:30 p.m. local time with live coverage on the FIA WEC app.

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