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.

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.

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

#38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 : Antonio Felix Da Costa, Will Stevens, Yifei Ye

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.

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.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	4	1'46.564		182.830
2	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi J. Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	4	+0.489 1'47.053	0.489	181.995
3	CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR	2	E. Bamber A. Lynn R. Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	5	+0.701 1'47.265	0.212	181.636
4	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	6	K. Estre A. Lotterer L. Vanthoor	Porsche 963	5	+1.148 1'47.712	0.447	180.882
5	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	5	+1.175 1'47.739	0.027	180.837
6	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	5	+1.264 1'47.828	0.089	180.687
7	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	5	D. Cameron M. Christensen F. Makowiecki	Porsche 963	7	+1.382 1'47.946	0.118	180.490
8	Proton Competition HYPERCAR	99	N. Jani G. Bruni H. Tincknell	Porsche 963	6	+1.400 1'47.964	0.018	180.460
9	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	38	A. Felix da Costa W. Stevens Y. Yifei	Porsche 963	7	+1.991 1'48.555	0.591	179.477
10	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	93	P. di Resta M. Jensen J. Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	6	+2.423 1'48.987	0.432	178.766
11	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	94	L. Duval G. Menezes N. Müller	Peugeot 9X8	6	+2.938 1'49.502	0.515	177.925
12	FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR	4	E. Guerrieri T. Vautier R. Briscoe	Vanwall Vandervell 680	7	+4.118 1'50.682	1.180	176.028
View full results