The first free practice of the 6 Hours of Bahrain, the fifth round of the FIA WEC, saw the Ferraris limited in their performance, despite the usual work on fine-tuning the cars.
LMGTE Pro. The first contact with the Bahraini asphalt confirmed the 488 GTE’s speed difficulties due to its rivals’ greater power. In a session in which the drivers were working on the car’s balance, the lead Porsche was way ahead, with the #51 car 2.3 seconds and the #52 car 3.9 seconds behind the leaders. Alessandro Pier Guidi covered 23 laps, the fastest in 2:00.330, the car’s best time, while James Calado recorded a 2:00.773 and covered 17 laps. The second AF Corse Ferrari encountered more difficulties, with Miguel Molina turning in a fastest lap time of 2:01.889 while Daniel Serra clocked 2:02.881. Overall, the Spaniard completed 20 laps compared to his teammate’s 17.
LMGTE-Am. Ferrari cars didn’t occupy the top positions in this class either at the end of the 90 minutes of the first free practice session that saw the best time of 1:58:177 posted by the Project 1 Porsche. Ferraris hold positions six through to twelve, apart from tenth, occupied by the #98 Aston Martin. The two AF Corse 488 GTEs were the fastest of the Maranello cars, with the #83 of leaders Perrodo-Nielsen-Rovera clocking 2:00.070, 14 thousandths of a second quicker than the #54, crewed by Flohr-Fisichella-Castellacci. The Cetilar Racing Ferraris are on the virtual fourth row with the first of the two Iron Lynx units, #60 with Mastronardi-Piccini-Cressoni. The second car, driven by the ‘Iron Dames’, came twelfth, just behind the Kessel Racing 488 GTE.