Lopez Leads Morning Rookie Test Session

Jose Maria Lopez set the quickest time in the morning session for the FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test in Bahrain.

The Argentinean driver, who came away victorious in Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, posted a best lap of 1:48.812 aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to lead the opening two hours of running on Sunday.

He led the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 driven by Nico Mueller by 0.788 seconds, with the sister No. 93 car slotting into third in the hands of Mikkel Jensen.

Peugeot’s three rookie drivers, Yann Ehrlacher, Malthe Jakobsen and Maximilian Guenther, all turned laps in the two-hour session.

Rookie test participant Lilou Wadoux spent the majority of the session turning laps behind the wheel of the No. 8 Toyota and set a best time of 1:50.953, 2.141 seconds down on Lopez.

Matthieu Vaxiviere completed the Hypercar class with a best lap of 1:52.641 aboard the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson.

The Frenchman’s best time was slower than the top three in LMP2, which was led by Nelson Piquet Jr.

The Brazilian topped the class ahead of his return to prototype racing in the European Le Mans Series with United Autosports next year.

Piquet Jr. is taking part in the test with the Anglo-American squad and set the quickest time of the morning with 1:51.922 aboard the No. 22 Oreca 07 Gibson.

Antonio Fuoco slotted into second, 0.384 seconds down in the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca, with late laps from both drivers dropping Richard Mille Racing Team’s Paul-Loup Chatin to third position.

Chatin’s early fast lap of 1:52.550 kept him ahead of the No. 9 Prema Oreca of Juan Manuel Correa and Team WRT’s Rene Rast.

Lorenzo Colombo led the way in GTE-Pro, with the Italian reeling off a best lap of 1:58.621 aboard the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

In doing so, he beat a benchmark lap by the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Axcil Jefferies by a mere 0.001 seconds.

The Ferrari and Corvette are the only two cars GTE-Pro entered into today’s test.

Maxime Oosten put the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19, which took a class win in yesterday’s finale, fastest in GTE-Am.

The Dutchman set a time of 2:00.749, 1.2 seconds clear of the No.21 Ferrari of Francois Heriau.

David Pittard rounded out the top three aboard the No. 98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR, with Finn Gehrsitz fourth in the No. 777 D’Station Racing car.

Out of the 21 cars entered for the test, only the No. 44 ARC Bratislava Oreca did not turn any laps.

The two-hour session ran largely green throughout, only interrupted by a 12-minute red flag caused by a stoppage for the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca of Yasser Shahin. The car returned to action prior to the conclusion of the session.

The three-hour afternoon session gets underway at 1 p.m (5 a.m ET).

RESULTS: Morning Session