Brendon Hartley has taken pole for Toyota for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s season finale, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, almost half a second ahead of his teammate, Kamui Kobayashi.
Both Toyota drivers exited the pits later than the other Hypercars. The #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn initially took provisional pole with a 1:47.265, but Toyota dashed Cadillac’s hopes of a maiden WEC pole.
First Hartley set a 1:46.564 in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, seven tenths faster than Lynn. Kobayashi then came through shortly after to take second in the sister #7 Toyota, albeit 0.489 off his teammate.
While it’s not pole, third is still Cadillac’s best WEC qualifying result ever. Lynn was 0.447 faster than the #6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, while the two Ferraris, Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P ahead of #51’s Alessandro Pier Guidi, could only manage fifth and sixth.
Fred Makowiecki took seventh in the sister #5 Porsche, with Gimmi Bruni in the #99 Proton Porsche 963 in eighth. Will Stevens took ninth in the #38 JOTA Porsche 963, with the two Peugeots of Paul di Resta and Nico Muller 10th and 11th. The Vanwall of Esteban Guerrieri rounded out Hypercar in 12th.
United Autosports’ Tom Blomqvist claimed LMP2 pole, almost three tenths ahead of nearest challenger Charles Milesi.
Blomqvist went top early in the session and wasn’t challenged from thereon in. He went fastest than the initial fastest driver, #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07-Gibson’s Gabriel Aubry, and then beat his own time to set pole, a 1:52.290.
Milesi, in the #36 Alpine Oreca 070-Gibson, went second late on in the session, but was still 0.271 off Blomqvist. Robin Frijns took third at the wheel of the #31 Team WRT Oreca 07-Gibson, over six tenths off Blomqvist.
In GTE-Am, Sarah Bovy took pole for the Iron Dames in the final ever GTE qualifying session.
The Belgian controlled much of the session, setting her time with roughly half of the 12 minutes to go in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19.
#33 Corvette C8.R’s Ben Keating set the initial representative lap time, but this was soon beaten by Ahmad Al Harthy in the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR, and then Kessel Racing’s Takeshi Kimura in the #57 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO.
However, Bovy then set her pole time, a 1:58.692, almost half a second faster than Kimura, now in second.
The Japanese driver wasn’t there for long, though. Al Harthy came through with a faster lap, just one thousandth faster than Kimura.
As the tyres started falling away from the drivers, amy more improvements seemed unlikely. That was before anyone had banked on WEC debutant, Liam Talbot, putting in a lap to go second in the #777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
This, then, led to final top 5 of Bovy, Talbot 0.290 behind, then Al Harthy with Kimura just 0.001 off. Keating took fifth, 0.720 off Bovy.
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