Porsche’s Brendon Hartley topped the final practice session for the World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.

Hartley, who shares his Porsche 919 with Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, set the fastest lap of the weekend on his first flyer, a 1m40.917s.

That was 1.1s clear of Romain Dumas in the sister 919 Hybrid.

The fastest Audi was 2.1s off the pace in Marcel Fassler’s hands, a 1m43.066s. There was a big scare for Andre Lotterer in that car late in the session, when the out-of-shape Nelson Panciatici caused him to take evasive action at the exit of Turn 3.

The second Audi, the #8 car, was third fastest, 2.8s off the pace.

The Toyotas were their customary fifth and sixth, although the #1 car was just 0.012s off the slowest Audi.

David Heinemeier Hansson topped the LMP2 times early on in the ESM Ligier, but was soon topped by Paul-Loup Chatin in the Signature Alpine – who received a black and white warning flag for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.

The KCMG Oreca of Richard Bradley/Nick Tandy/Matthew Howson was second fastest.

Astons lead way in GTE

Patrick Pilet was fastest early on in GTE Pro in the Porsche 911 RSR he shares Frederic Makowiecki, but was soon beaten by Nicki Thiim’s Aston Martin Vantage.

Darren Turner then hit the top of the times on 1m59.992s in his Aston.

The #99 Aston was 0.06s faster than the sister #97 car, with the #95 making it an Aston 1-2-3. Gianmaria Bruni/Toni Vilander were best of the rest in their AF Corse Ferrari.

Pedro Lamy was fastest in GTE Am in the Aston he shares with Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda.

Incident and accidents

There were plenty of incidents in this one-hour session: Pierre Kaffer spun at Turn 1 in his CLM P1, Nicolas Prost rotated his Rebellion R-One at Turn 8 and Gianluca Roda spun his Corvette at Turn 11.

Dalla Lana spun his Aston at Turn 8 after an earlier turf war with the Proton Porsche of Pat Long, who also had a run-in with the CLM late in the session.

There was also a full course yellow to retrieve the bodywork hatch that covers the front dampers of the Strakka Racing Gibson at Turn 8.