Alonso completes first laps in Toyota LMP1 car

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Fernando Alonso has been hard at work on Sunday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Spanish driver is taking part in a rookie test for the FIA World Endurance Championship. He's at the wheel of the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing LMP1 racing car.

Alonso's outing in the TS050 HYBRID has been rumoured for several weeks, but was only finally officially confirmed yesterday.

The car was given an initial shakedown by the winner of Saturday's Six Hours in Bahrain event, Sebastian Buemi.

After around 40 minutes, it was Alonso's turn to step in. He was wearing his familiar iconic helmet but otherwise a mainly white firesuit to avoid sponsorship issues.

GALLERY: Alonso's day with Toyota in Bahrain

He went on to complete a total of 37 laps of the Sakhir circuit during the morning session, as he got to grips with his new environment. Alonso hopes to be able to take part in next years Le Mans 24 Hour race with the team.

His best time was 1:43.709s on his penultimate lap, around a second and a half slower than Buemi's best. Fellow LMP1 debutant Thomas Laurent was around half a second faster in the sister #7 car, making him the fastest rookie in action.

Laurent has been paired for the day with English driver Mike Conway, who recorded the third-best time of the morning of 1:42.824s.

The fastest time of the morning went to Timo Bernhard in the Porsche #1 car. Bernhard subsequently made way for Pietro Fittipaldi who put in a top time of 1:43.301s over the course of 22 laps.

Today's run is part of Fittipaldi's prize for winning this year's Formula V8 3.5 single-seater championship.

Current Force India test and development driver Alfonso Celis has also been taking part. He set the third fastest time in the GTE-Pro class at the wheel of the #51 Ferrari.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.