WEC Portimao: Hartley leads Toyota 1-2 in qualifying; Ferrari third

Brendon Hartley led a qualifying 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer, outpacing team-mate and team principal Kamui Kobayashi by nearly three tenths of a second.

Hartley’s 1m30.171s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar compared with Kobayashi’s 1m30.444s in #7.

Toyota had a clear margin over Ferrari, which took pole in the Sebring season-opener last month, in the 15-minute Hypercar qualifying session.

Nicklas Nielsen was nearly a second and a half off the pace in third spot aboard the best of the Italian manufacturer’s 499P LMHs.

His 1m31.596s gave hm a four-tenth margin over team-mate James Calado’s 1m31.923s in the sister car.

Hartley said: “We put a bit of effort into qualifying this time because we were a little bit annoyed at Sebring.

“I knew the lap was good, but I also knew that I would have Kamui right behind me.

“We’re expecting a big fight tomorrow, especially with the red cars [Ferraris].”

Porsche took fifth position with Kevin Estre aboard the best of its 963 LMDhs.

His 1m32.404s was just a tenth quicker than the best of the Peugeot 9X8s in which Nico Muller posted a 1m32.517s.

Frederic Makowiecki took seventh position in the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries just ahead of Richard Westbrook in the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh.

Glickenhaus got the better of Vanwall in the battle of the garagistes at the rear of the 11-car Hypercr field, Romain Dumas outpacing Tom Dillmann by half a second.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Mirko Bortolotti snatched a first LMP2 pole position for the Prema team by just one thousandth of a second.

The factory Lamborghini driver put in a 1m34.303s in the best of the Italian team’s pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s on his final flying lap to knock Vector Sport’s Gabriel Aubry off the top stop.

Bortolotti bounced back from losing an even faster time — a 1m34.284s — on his previous lap to a track limits infraction.

Prema’s pole remains provisional: an investigation was underway after the #63 ORECA was worked on in the fast lane in the pits at the start of the session.

Aubry’s 1m34.304s set early in the session gave him a margin of a tenth over United Autosports driver Phil Hanson, whose late improvement to a 1m34.451s promoted him to third.

Yifei Ye was also a late-improver and jumped to fourth aboard the best of the two Jota ORECASs.

Ben Keating claimed pole position in GTE Am right at the end of the session from regular qualifying sparring partner Sarah Bovy.

The Corvette Racing driver found four tenths on his final lap to jump from third to the top of timesheets aboard his Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and deprive Bovy of a third consecutive class pole for the Iron Dames team.

Keating’s final lap of 1m41.362s was two tenths up on Bovy’s 1m41.579s at the wheel of the Iron Lynx-run Porsche 911 RSR.

Diego Alessi claimed third with a 1m41.628s in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.

The Portimao 6 Hours, round two of the 2023 WEC, starts at 12:00 local time on Sunday.

Full WEC Portimao Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'30.171
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'30.444	0.273
3	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'31.596	1.425
4	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'31.923	1.752
5	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'32.404	2.233
6	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'32.517	2.346
7	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'32.560	2.389
8	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	1'32.582	2.411
9	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'32.703	2.532
10	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	1'33.343	3.172
11	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	1'33.836	3.665
View full results