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WEC Bahrain: Hartley beats Toyota team-mate Kobayashi to pole

The extra point of the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar Hartley shares with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa is significant in the championship battle between the two crews from the Japanese manufacturer.

It means that the the #8 crew only have to finish third to to take the WEC Hypercar title even if Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez win the race.

Hartley took the point with a 1m46.564s to repeat his 2022 pole for the Bahrain 8 Hours, which gave him a margin of nearly half a second over Kobayashi.

The Japanese driver set a 1m47.053s to secure second by two tenths from the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series-R in which Alex Lynn posted a 1m47.265s.

Kevin Estre sneaked up to fourth at the end of the 15-minute Hypercar session with a 1m47.712s aboard the best of the two Penske Porsche 963 LMDhs.

His lap pushed Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH down to fifth by a couple of hundredths of a second.

Fuoco’s 1m47.739s was a tenth up on team-mate Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second of the factory AF Corse-run Ferraris.

The second factory Porsche was a further tenth back in Frederic Makowiecki’s hands in seventh position ahead of the two customer 963s, Gianmaria Bruni in the Proton Competition entry just besting Will Stevens in the Jota car.

#38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 : Antonio Felix Da Costa, Will Stevens, Yifei Ye (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The two Peugeot 9X8 LMHs filled out 10th and 11th places, Paul di Resta ahead of Nico Muller, while the Vanwall Vandervell 680 brought up the rear of the Hypercar field in Esteban Guerrieri’s hands.

Tom Blomqvist took class qualifying honours for United Autosports on the last regular outing for LMP2 in the WEC.

His 1m52.290s aboard the #23 United ORECA-Gibson 07 was nearly three tenths of a second up on Charles Milesi’s best for the Alpine ORECA squad.

The French driver’s 1m52.561s gave him a margin of more than half a second over third-placed Robin Frijns, who jumped up the order right at the end of the session in the fastest of the Belgian WRT team’s entries.

The sister WRT that leads the P2 points could only qualify 10th in the hands of Louis Deletraz.

Sarah Bovy claimed a third GTE Am pole of the year for the Iron Dames Porsche team.

A best lap of 1m58.692s aboard the Iron Lynx-run Porsche 911 RSR put her three tenths up on Liam Talbot in the TF Sport-run D’Station Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Sarah Bovy (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The Australian, who is replacing team boss Satoshi Hoshino for the Bahrain race, posted a 1m58.982s right at the end of the 15-minute session.

He knocked Ahmad al Harthy in the sister ORT by TF entry down to third, a 1m59.161s from the second Aston just one thousandth quicker than Ben Keating in the Corvette Racing entry.

The Bahrain 8 Hours starts at 14:00 local time on Saturday.

WEC Bahrain Qualifying Results:

 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 4

1'46.564

  182.830
2
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Argentina J. Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 4

+0.489

1'47.053

0.489 181.995
3
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn United Kingdom R. Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R 5

+0.701

1'47.265

0.212 181.636
4
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 5

+1.148

1'47.712

0.447 180.882
5
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 5

+1.175

1'47.739

0.027 180.837
6
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 5

+1.264

1'47.828

0.089 180.687
7
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 United States D. Cameron Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 7

+1.382

1'47.946

0.118 180.490
8
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 Switzerland N. Jani Italy G. Bruni United Kingdom H. Tincknell Porsche 963 6

+1.400

1'47.964

0.018 180.460
9
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 Portugal A. Felix da Costa United Kingdom W. Stevens China Y. Yifei Porsche 963 7

+1.991

1'48.555

0.591 179.477
10
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 United Kingdom P. di Resta Denmark M. Jensen France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 6

+2.423

1'48.987

0.432 178.766
11
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 France L. Duval United States G. Menezes Switzerland N. Müller Peugeot 9X8 6

+2.938

1'49.502

0.515 177.925
12
FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR
4 Argentina E. Guerrieri France T. Vautier Australia R. Briscoe Vanwall Vandervell 680 7

+4.118

1'50.682

1.180 176.028
 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
United Autosports LMP2
23 United States J. Pierson United Kingdom T. Blomqvist United Kingdom O. Jarvis Oreca 07 7

1'52.290

  173.507
2
Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2
36 France M. Vaxiviere France J. Canal France C. Milesi Oreca 07 7

+0.271

1'52.561

0.271 173.090
3
TEAM WRT LMP2
31 Indonesia S. Gelael Austria F. Habsburg Netherlands R. Frijns Oreca 07 7

+0.608

1'52.898

0.337 172.573
4
VECTOR SPORT LMP2
10 Ireland R. Cullen Liechtenstein M. Kaiser France G. Aubry Oreca 07 6

+0.613

1'52.903

0.005 172.565
5
United Autosports LMP2
22 United Kingdom F. Lubin United Kingdom P. Hanson Portugal F. Albuquerque Oreca 07 7

+0.702

1'52.992

0.089 172.429
6
PREMA RACING LMP2
9 Romania F. Ugran Netherlands B. Viscaal United States J. Correa Oreca 07 7

+0.743

1'53.033

0.041 172.367
7
INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION LMP2
34 Poland J. Smiechowski Switzerland F. Scherer Spain A. Costa Oreca 07 7

+0.796

1'53.086

0.053 172.286
8
PREMA RACING LMP2
63 France D. Pin Italy M. Bortolotti Russian Federation D. Kvyat Oreca 07 6

+0.901

1'53.191

0.105 172.126
9
Jota Sport LMP2
28 Denmark D. Heinemeier Hansson Brazil P. Fittipaldi Denmark O. Rasmussen Oreca 07 7

+1.030

1'53.320

0.129 171.930
10
TEAM WRT LMP2
41 Portugal R. Andrade Poland R. Kubica Switzerland L. Deletraz Oreca 07 7

+1.290

1'53.580

0.260 171.537
11
Alpine Elf Endurance Team LMP2
35 Brazil A. Negrao Mexico M. Rojas United Kingdom O. Caldwell Oreca 07 7

+1.733

1'54.023

0.443 170.870
 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
IRON DAMES LMGTE AM
85 Belgium S. Bovy Denmark M. Gatting Switzerland R. Frey Porsche 911 RSR - 19 7

1'58.692

  164.149
2
D'Station Racing LMGTE AM
777 Australia L. Talbot United Kingdom C. Stevenson Japan T. Fujii Aston Martin Vantage AMR 7

+0.290

1'58.982

0.290 163.749
3
ORT BY TF LMGTE AM
25 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy United States M. Dinan Ireland C. Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR 7

+0.469

1'59.161

0.179 163.503
4
Kessel Racing LMGTE AM
57 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Brazil D. Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 7

+0.470

1'59.162

0.001 163.501
5
Corvette Racing LMGTE AM
33 United States B. Keating
N. Varrone
Netherlands N. Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 8

+0.720

1'59.412

0.250 163.159
6
NORTHWEST AMR LMGTE AM
98 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR 7

+0.991

1'59.683

0.271 162.790
7
AF Corse LMGTE AM
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 7

+1.069

1'59.761

0.078 162.684
8
Proton Competition LMGTE AM
77 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
France J. Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 7

+1.371

2'00.063

0.302 162.274
9
RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE LMGTE AM
83 Argentina L. Perez Companc France L. Wadoux Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 8

+1.587

2'00.279

0.216 161.983
10
PROJECT 1 - AO LMGTE AM
56 United States P. Hyett United States G. Jeannette Italy M. Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR - 19 7

+1.754

2'00.446

0.167 161.758
11
GR RACING LMGTE AM
86 United Kingdom M. Wainwright Italy R. Pera United Kingdom B. Barker Porsche 911 RSR - 19 7

+2.583

2'01.275

0.829 160.653
12
IRON LYNX LMGTE AM
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni Belgium A. Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 7

+2.855

2'01.547

0.272 160.293
13
AF Corse LMGTE AM
21
F. Dezoteux
France S. Mann Japan K. Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 7

+3.954

2'02.646

1.099 158.857
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