Manama : Peugeot TotalEnergies powered to the top of the times today in the third and final World Endurance Championship (WEC) Free Practice session in the 2024 WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain, powered by Bapco Energies.
Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’, opened its gates to fans this morning and they got to enjoy plenty of world-class racing and fun, family entertainment.
On the track, the Peugeot #93 crew of Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, and Jean-Eric Vergne set the fastest lap in the WEC’s 60-minute practice. They followed the lead of teammates Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul Di Resta, and Loic Duval, who were quickest during the weekend’s first Free Practice held Thursday.
The stage is now set for WEC Qualifying, flagging off at 4pm this afternoon. It will be split into separate sessions for the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. That will then set the stage for the weekend’s highly anticipated main event on Saturday (Editor’s note: 2 November). Gates are scheduled to open at 10.30am Saturday morning and close at 10pm.
Grandstand tickets are still available for fans wishing to attend. The cost is BD5.5 for adults and BD2.75 for children. Tickets can be bought at the gate, online at bahraingp.com, or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.
All tickets sold will help make a positive environmental impact in the Kingdom, as BIC and Bapco Energies have brought back the ground-breaking Green Ticket Initiative, which will greatly contribute to achieving the national target of quadrupling mangrove coverage across the Kingdom by 2035.
Race-goers will be able to enjoy an Open Paddock experience – an initiative that is unique to the WEC event, allowing race-goers to access the paddock where they will likely run into the WEC’s superstar drivers.
Aside from the racing, there is also a wide array of off-track entertainment, headlined by the ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Experience, which celebrates the Warner Bros Pictures live-action film of the same name.
Jensen-Muller-Vergne had a top lap time of one minute 49.443 seconds and were 0.219 seconds ahead of AF Corse’s #83 crew of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, and Yifei Yi. Third on the timesheet were the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx trio of Edoardo Mortara, Mirko Bortolotti, and Daniil Kvyat, who were 0.571s off the leader’s pace.
The three overall fastest in the session are competing in the WEC’s Hypercar category.
Leading the LMGT3 class were Manthey PureRxcing’s #92 triumvirate of Joel Sturm, Aliaksandr Malykhin, Klaus Bachler with a best lap of 2:03.987.
Akkodis ASP Team’s #78 Conrad Laursen, Arnold Robin, and Kelvin van der Linde followed, while Vista AF Corse’s #55 trio of Simon Mann, Francois Heriau, and Alessio Rovera were third.
Meanwhile, also hitting the tarmac today at BIC, Janne Stiak and Colin Boenighausen both captured pole position for the first two races of the 2024/2025 season in the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle east (PCCME), being held in support of the WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain, powered by Bapco Energies.
Stiak took the leading grid position for today’s first race, scheduled for a 5.45pm start, while Boenighausen secured pole for race two on Saturday at 11am.
Stiak set a quickest lap time of two minutes 03.556 seconds during this morning’s qualifying runs. He was 0.047 seconds ahead of Boenighausen on the times, while James Wallis was third on the classification 0.817s. All three drivers are competing in the PCCME’s Pro class.
Set to start race one as the leading ProAm driver is Saud Al Saud, while in the all-new Masters category is Petr Brecka.
Meanwhile, Boenighausen came away with race two pole after clocking a second-fastest mark of 2:03.933 in qualifying. He switched places with Stiak, who will be second on the grid for race two, while in third will be Angus Whiteside.
The leading ProAm driver for the second race is Thomas Kiefer, while Brecka is once again in front amongst the Masters competitors.
