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.
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:
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 | |||||
