WEC Bahrain: Toyota takes pole to close points gap on Porsche

Toyota claimed pole position for the Bahrain World Endurance Championship finale to move one point closer to Porsche in the manufacturers’ standings.

Brendon Hartley took the top spot in the Hyperpole session on Friday evening aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar, his first pole since this race last year.

It means that Toyota goes into Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours only nine points behind Porsche in the manufacturers’ classification.

Hartley’s 1m46.714s gave him the top spot by three tenths from team-mate Nyck de Vries, who lapped in 1m47.037s aboard the sister Toyota.

“We had a tough day yesterday and were not happy with the few things,” said Hartley.

“I learnt from quali one where I didn’t get the tyre prep quite right and then the car came alive in Hyperpole.”

Antonio Giovinazzi took third with a 1m47.080s, only four hundredths behind the second Toyota, in the best of the factory Ferrari 499P LMHs.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi (Photo by: Shameem Fahath)

Top Porsche was the customer Proton 963 LMDh in the hands of Neel Jani, who was a further two tenths back on a 1m47.234s.

Antonio Fuoco took fifth on the grid in the second of the AF Corse-run factory Ferraris with a 1m47.527s.

That put him just ahead of the championship-leading factory Penske-run Porsche in which Kevin Estre took sixth with a 1m47.542s.

The second of the Penske cars was seventh in Matt Campbell’s hands, while Norman Nato was eighth in the only one of the two Jota customer Porsches to make it through to Hyperpole for the fastest 10 cars in opening qualifying.

The two BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs brought up the rear of the times, Dries Vanthoor ahead of Robin Frijns.

Frijns, however, did a time lost to a track limits infringement that would have put him seventh.

Cadillac failed to make it through to Hyperpole with its solo V-Series.R LMDh run by Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex Lynn ending up 13th after only posting a representative time when the chequered flag had already fallen.

Both Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs and Alpine A424 LMDhs were knocked out at the first stage of qualifying.

#95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: Joshua Caygill, Nicolas Pino, Marino Sato (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The United Autosports team locked out the LMGT3 front row as McLaren took its second class pole of the season after the Inception Racing IMSA SportsCar Championship squad took qualifying honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

Josh Caygill grabbed the top spot in the times in the best of the McLaren 720S GT3 EVOs when he lapped in 2m02.201s, just two thousandths of second quicker than team-mate James Cottingham’s 2m02.203s.

The McLarens ended up more than a tenth clear of Francois Heriau, who posted a 2m02.367s in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s.

Sarah Bovy, the only driver to take two poles in LMGT3 this year, ended up fourth in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Alex Malykhin, who has already been crowned LMGT3 champion with team-mates Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler, took fifth in the Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3-R despite carrying 35kg of success ballast.

Both WRT BMW M4 GT3s failed to make the cut for Hyperpole in the hands of Darren Leung and Ahmad Al Harthy.

The Bahrain 8 Hours, the eighth and final round of the 2024 WEC, begins at 14:00 local time on Saturday.

WEC Bahrain 8 Hours - Qualifying results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	4	1'46.714		182.573
2	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi N. de Vries	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	5	+0.323 1'47.037	0.323	182.023
3	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	5	+0.366 1'47.080	0.043	181.949
4	Proton Competition HYPERCAR	99	H. Tincknell N. Jani J. Andlauer	Porsche 963	5	+0.520 1'47.234	0.154	181.688
5	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	5	+0.813 1'47.527	0.293	181.193
6	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	6	K. Estre A. Lotterer L. Vanthoor	Porsche 963	6	+0.828 1'47.542	0.015	181.168
7	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	5	M. Campbell M. Christensen F. Makowiecki	Porsche 963	6	+0.916 1'47.630	0.088	181.020
8	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	12	W. Stevens C. Ilott N. Nato	Porsche 963	5	+1.236 1'47.950	0.320	180.483
9	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	15	D. Vanthoor R. Marciello M. Wittmann	BMW M Hybrid V8	5	+1.256 1'47.970	0.020	180.450
10	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	20	S. Van Der Linde R. Frijns R. Rast	BMW M Hybrid V8	5	+7.850 1'54.564	6.594	170.063
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