Bahrain WEC: Toyota on pole for title decider, Alpine only fifth

The New Zealander took his second pole of the year after the Le Mans 24 Hours with a 1m46.800s lap aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to knock Peugeot’s Paul di Resta off the top spot in qualifying by eight tenths.

Di Resta posted a 1m47.610s aboard the #93 Peugeot 9X8 to just shade Mike Conway’s 1m47.738s in the #7 Toyota before Hartley set his time.

The point for pole won by the #8 Toyota moves Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa clear of the Alpine A480 crew at the head of the championship going into Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours.

The Toyota drivers and the Alpine trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxivierre and Andre Negrao were tied on 121 points prior to qualifying.

Gustavo Menezes took fourth position in the second of the Peugeots with a 1m48.334s, which was seven tenths down on teammate di Resta’s time.

Vaxiviere brought up the rear of the Hypercar class in the grandfathered LMP1 Alpine with a 1m48.343s despite making a second run on a fresh set of tyres..

Norman Nato grabbed pole in LMP2 right at the end of the 10-minute prototype qualifying session for the Realteam by WRT squad.

The Frenchman improved to a 1m50.330s on a second set of tyres aboard his Oreca 07 to knock Will Stevens off the pole in the championship-leading JOTA Oreca.

Stevens’ 1m50.467s set on his first run stood as the second best time, which was just three hundredths up on Filipe Albuquerque’s 1m50.497s in the #22 United Autosports Oreca.

The Portuguese improved on this second run to a 1m50.445s to go quicker than Stevens, but lost the time to a track limits infraction.

  (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Porsche on pole for GTE Pro's swansong

Porsche driver Gianmaria Bruni took the last ever pole position in GTE Pro. The Italian jumped to the head of class times in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a 1m56.143s set on his second flying lap.

That gave him a margin of just under three tenths over Antonio Fuoco, whose 1m56.419s sealed second position for the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Michael Christensen took third in the #92 Porsche has he sought to take the point for pole position.

The extra point would have closed the gap on championship leaders James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi to just 10 points and meant Christensen and Estre could seal the title with class victory no matter where their Ferrari rivals finished.

Christensen was initially fastest with a 1m56.439s before just losing out to Fuoco.

He pitted for a fresh set of tyres and improved to a 1m56.306s to reclaim second, before the time was deleted for a track limits violation.

Pier Guidi took fourth on 1m56.687s after a spin, while the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in Nick Tandy’s hands brought up the rear of the five-car class.

Pole position in GTE Am went to Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Ferrari. Her 1m59.186s shaded Ben Keating in the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE by half a second.

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

• Watch all WEC races, including this weekend's 8 Hours of Bahrain, live on Motorsport.tv

Hypercar and LMP2 qualifying results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'46.800
2	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'47.610	0.810
3	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'47.738	0.938
4	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'48.334	1.534
5	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'48.343	1.543
6	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.330	3.530
7	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.467	3.667
8	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.497	3.697
9	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.546	3.746
10	44	Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Richard Bradley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.619	3.819
11	23	Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.661	3.861
12	10	Renger van der Zande Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.766	3.966
13	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.802	4.002
14	1	Lilou Wadoux Paul-Loup Chatin Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.857	4.057
15	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.110	4.310
16	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.479	4.679
17	34	Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.661	4.861
18	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.821	5.021
19	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'59.503	12.703
View full results

GTE Pro and GTE Am results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'56.143
2	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.419	0.276
3	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'56.439	0.296
4	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.472	0.329
5	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	1'57.539	1.396
6	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.186	3.043
7	Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.698	3.555
8	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.708	3.565
9	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.030	3.887
10	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.489	4.346
11	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.597	4.454
12	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.715	4.572
13	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.733	4.590
14	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'01.100	4.957
15	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.303	5.160
16	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'01.307	5.164
17	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'01.361	5.218
18	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'01.730	5.587
View full results