Peugeot 1-2 in Opening Bahrain Free Practice

Jean-Eric Vergne led a 1-2 for Peugeot in the opening Free Practice session for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, with the Frenchman nearly a second clear of teammate Nico Mueller.

Vergne posted a best lap of 1:50.536 aboard the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8, which he shares with Mikkel Jensen and Paul Di Resta.

Mueller, who turned his first laps behind the wheel of the No. 94 sister car in a competitive session, sat 0.877 seconds down in second place.

The two Peugeots remained ahead of the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, with Kobayashi’s best effort of 1:51.675 over a second down on the quickest of the two French machines.

Nico Lapierre slotted into fourth place in the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson, beating out title rival Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota by just over a tenth of a second.

The LMP2 ranks were led by the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson of Nicklas Nielsen as the Dane reeled off a best lap of 1:52.144 to top the class.

The Pro-Am entered car beat out the No. 1 Richard Mille Racing Team car of Charles Milesi, with championship leader Will Stevens rounding out the top three aboard the No. 38 JOTA Oreca.

Louis Deletraz held fourth for Prema, with the Team WRT pair of Norman Nato and Rene Rast fifth and sixth, respectively.

In GTE-Pro, Michael Christensen topped the session ahead of what will be the final race for the class.

The Dane went quickest with an early lap of 1:58.025 aboard the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, which is decked out in a special livery this weekend to commemorate the category’s impending farewell.

Antonio Fuoco sat in second position aboard the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, 0.236 seconds behind the leading Porsche.

Alessandro Pier Guidi completed out the top three in the sister Ferrari, ahead of Porsche’s Gianmaria Bruni and the sole Chevrolet Corvette C8.R driven by Nick Tandy.

Ben Barnicoat set a best lap of 1:59.636 in the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche to lead the GTE-Am ranks, outpacing AF Corse’s Toni Vilander and GR Racing’s Ben Barker.

The second Free Practice session at Bahrain International Circuit gets underway at 5:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1