Aston Martin tops opening day of 8 Hours of Bahrain after practice sessions
6th November 2025Aston Martin set the early pace at the 8 Hours of Bahrain, topping both timing boards, as Proton Competition and Akkodis ASP shared top honours in LMGT3.
Feature image credit: Creative Commons
The FIA World Endurance Championship ignited its season finale on Thursday with the opening practice sessions of the 8 Hours of Bahrain, at the iconic Bahrain International Circuit, which will see the titles decided against the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes.
The opening session started under the warm and sunny conditions before darkness fell for the second practice session.
So, how did both sessions end?
FP1
Hypercar
Aston Martin set the early pace in the first 90-minute session of the weekend with a best lap time of 1m 49.697s, and their #009 sister car rounded out the top three, 1.941 seconds behind. Ferrari’s privateer #83 AF Corse filled the gap between the two Astons in second.
Peugeot’s #93 and Ferrari’s #51 occupied the top 5, in fourth and fifth, ahead of the pair of Toyota’s which was led by the #8, ahead of the #7 car. Alpine’s #36 headed the rest of the field inside the top 10, in eighth, with Ferrari’s AF Corse and #5 Porsche completing the session in ninth and 10th.
The trailing Porsche finished the opening session 2.614s adrift of the benchmark time, in their first outing of their final weekend in the WEC.
LMGT3
The #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang was the pace-setter in the lower LMGT3 class ahead of the pair of Akkodis ASP Lexus’, with a time of 2m 2.681s. The #87 Lexus headed its #78 sister car by 0.328s, in second and third, respectively.
They were joined by the two BMWs, #46 and #31, belonging to Team WRT and The Bend Team WRT, who rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth.
It left the Manthey 1st Phorm’s Porsche to head the remaining cars inside the top 10, in sixth. The Porsche was accompanied by the #60 Mercedes of Iron Lynx and two Aston Martins, the #21 of Heart of Racing and #10 of Racing Spirit of Leman.
The #81 Corvette of TF Sport rounded off the top 10 inside the first practice session for the LMGT3 field, 1.652 seconds adrift of the leading Ford’s time.
FP2
Hypercar
Aston Martin headed the field with their #009 contender with a best lap of 1m 49.042s ahead of Peugeot’s #93 and Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7, who finished in second and third, 0.159s and 0.3 seconds behind.
This left the #5 Porsche and #51 works Ferrari to round out the top five, in fourth and fifth. Toyota’s #8 found itself leading the bottom five cars inside the top 10 with a best time of 1m 49.473s, 0.431s adrift of Aston Martin’s benchmark pace.
They were followed home by Cadillac’s #12, Aston Martin’s #007, Alpine’s
#36 and Peugeot’s #94 contenders, who completed the top 10, in seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.
LMGT3
Akkodis ASP’s #78 Lexus was the pacesetter in the second practice session of the weekend with a best time of 2m 2.613s, accompanied by Porsche’s #85 Iron Dames and TF Sport’s #33 Corvette.
Aston Martin’s #27, of Heart of Racing, found itself best of the rest, 0.746s adrift of the best time ahead of the #60 Mercedes of Iron Lynx.
Proton Compeition found themselves inside the top 10 with both cars, with the #88 leading the way in sixth ahead of the #77, in 10th. It allowed The Bend Team’s #31 BMW, Vista AF Corse’s #21 Ferrari and the #10 Aston Martin, Racing Spirit of Leman, to fill the void in seventh to ninth, respectively.
Read more World Endurance Championship content here:
- 8 Hours of Bahrain: The schedule for the season finale
- 8 Hours of Bahrain: The latest weather report for season finale
- Alpine takes victory at WEC 6 Hours of Fuji as Corvette win LMGT3
- 6 Hours of Fuji: how has the first half of the race unfolded?
- 6 Hours of Fuji: Who leads after the first hour of the WEC race?
- Cadillac and Aston Martin take pole for 6 Hours of Fuji
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