Aston Martin surprises to lead opening Bahrain WEC practice

Aston Martin THOR Team's No. 009 Valkyrie claimed the top spot on the timing screens for the first practice session for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, season finale for the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Marco Sorensen was aboard when the V12-powered LMH completed its 1m49.697s, to go 1.455s clear of the other 17 cars in the Hypercar class as the only car to set a sub-1m51s time.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari ended up second with a 1m51.152s, while the second Valkyrie was third with a time 1.9s off after 41 tours of the circuit.

Peugeot's No. 93 9X8 slotted in fourth with the No. 51 Ferrari completing the top five.

As for Ferrari's title contenders, the No. 6 Porsche ended up 14th and the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac finished up 16th, both with best times more than three seconds off the No. 009.

In LMGT3, in which the teams are back on the Goodyear Hard Eagle compound once again, it was tighter at the top. Proton Competition's No. 77 Ford Mustang GT3 set the benchmark time, a 2m02.681s during Ben Barker's time in the car.

The two AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3s were next, second and third. The quicker of the two was the No. 87, which completed a 2m02.737s with Jose Maria Lopez behind the wheel to get within half a tenth of the leading Ford.

The No. 46 WRT BMW slotted in fourth, ahead of the sister No. 31 in fifth. The championship-leading Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche wasn't far behind, its best lap was a 2m03.758s from Richard Lietz.

It was a relatively uneventful 90 minutes, with the running broken up once by a brief full-course yellow.

Next up is Free Practice 2 at 5:00pm local time.

RESULTS