The #7 Toyota GAZOO Racing will start on the front spot at tomorrow’s 8 Hours of Bahrain after Kamui Kobayashi claimed pole position.
For the final qualifying sessions of the year, it was swift yet gripping as drivers sought about finding the most during the evening at the Sakhir International Circuit.
With between two and three flying laps available to attempt by each driver, considering the time limitations, the pressure was on to stand out in a competitive field.
This meant track limits were exceeded at certain points which diminished some of the drivers’ efforts during their endeavours.
In GTE-Am, it was Roberto Lacorte of the #47 Cetilar Racing who landed their first pole position with a 1m58.712s.
The top three places in GTE-Am were all taken by Ferraris, including the likes of Sarah Bovy in her most successful qualifying efforts so far in the WEC.
A mention to the #46 Team Project 1, who were unable to participate this weekend after failing to get two Bronze drivers.
GTE-Pro was topped by Kevin Estre, taking his fifth pole position of this season.
His 1m56.041s was a narrow 0.160s ahead of the #51 AF Corse of James Calado.
With a single point awarded for pole, the #51 and the #91 now tie on the FIA WEC GT Drivers’ Championship standings which adds to the pressure for tomorrow’s finale.
The #52 of Daniel Serra was over five-tenths away from Estre’s pole time after being unable to better his banker lap time.
LMP2 was topped by Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 after doing a lap time of 1m49.525s.
The fight for pole in the class was intense as usual with various contenders, but the Portuguese driver bettered his final flying lap to beat Realteam Racing’s Norman Nato by just under three-tenths-of-a-second.
Ferdinand Habsburg of the championship-leading #31 will start seventh in-class, two places ahead of the #28 but four behind the #38 – two of their main championship rivals.
In the Hypercar category, Kamui Kobayashi claimed overall pole position in the #7 Toyota GAZOO Racing-entered GR010 Hybrid.
His time of 1m46.250s bettered Hartley’s pole position time set last week and puts the #7 crew at the advantage as they target consecutive WEC Driver’s Championship to couple with their Le Mans win earlier in the year.
| OVERALL POSITION | CLASS POSITION | TEAM | DRIVER | FASTEST TIME |
DIFF TO SESSION POLE |
| Hypercar | |||||
| 1 | 1 | #7 Toyota GAZOO Racing | Kamui Kobayashi | 1m46.250s | – – |
| 2 | 2 | #8 Toyota GAZOO Racing | Brendon Hartley | 1m46.540s | 0.290s |
| 3 | 3 | #36 Alpine Elf Matmut | Matthieu Vaxiviere | 1m47.025s | 0.775s |
| LMP2 | |||||
| 4 | 1 | #22 United Autosports | Filipe Albuquerque | 1m49.525s | 3.275s |
| 5 | 2 | #70 Realteam Racing (Pro/Am) | Norman Nato | 1m49.819s | 3.569s |
| 6 | 3 | #38 JOTA | Antonio Felix Da Costa | 1m49.910s | 3.660s |
| 7 | 4 | #29 Racing Team Nederland (Pro/Am) | Guido Van Der Garde | 1m50.149s | 3.899s |
| 8 | 5 | #20 High Class Racing (Pro/Am) | Robert Kubica | 1m50.372s | 4.122s |
| 9 | 6 | #1 Richard Mille Racing | Sophia Floersch | 1m50.744s | 4.494s |
| 10 | 7 | #31 Team WRT | Ferdinand Habsburg | 1m51.063s | 4.813s |
| 11 | 8 | #21 DragonSpeed USA (Pro/Am) | Juan Pablo Montoya | 1m51.134s | 4.884s |
| 12 | 9 | #28 JOTA | Tom Blomqvist | 1m51.145s | 4.895s |
| 13 | 10 | #34 Inter Europol Competition (Pro/Am) | Renger Van Der Zande | 1m51.187s | 4.937s |
| 14 | 11 | #44 ARC Bratislava (Pro/Am) | Oliver Caldwell | 1m51.424s | 5.174s |
| LM-GTE Pro | |||||
| 15 | 1 | #92 Porsche GT Team | Kevin Estre | 1m56.041s | – – |
| 16 | 2 | #51 AF Corse | James Calado | 1m56.201s | 0.160s |
| 17 | 3 | #91 Porsche GT Team | Gianmaria Bruni | 1m56.541s | 0.500s |
| 18 | 4 | #52 AF Corse | Daniel Serra | 1m56.603s | 0.562s |
| LM-GTE Am | |||||
| 19 | 1 | #47 Cetilar Racing | Roberto Lacorte | 1m58.712s | 2.671s |
| 20 | 2 | #83 AF Corse | François Perrodo | 1m58.759s | 2.718s |
| 21 | 3 | #85 Iron Lynx | Sarah Bovy | 1m58.958s | 2.917s |
| 22 | 4 | #56 Team Project 1 | Egidio Perfetti | 1m58.989s | 2.948s |
| 23 | 5 | #33 TF Sport | Ben Keating | 1m59.087s | 3.046s |
| 24 | 6 | #98 Aston Martin Racing | Paul Dalla Lana | 1m59.096s | 3.055s |
| 25 | 7 | #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing | Khaled Al Qubaisi | 1m59.359s | 3.318s |
| 26 | 8 | #54 AF Corse | Thomas Flohr | 1m59.492s | 3.451s |
| 27 | 9 | #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing | Christian Ried | 1m59.936s | 3.895s |
| 28 | 10 | #57 Kessel Racing | Takeshi Kimura | 2m00.301s | 4.260s |
| 29 | 11 | #777 D’station Racing | Satoshi Hoshino | 2m00.364s | 4.323s |
| 30 | 12 | #86 GR Racing | Michael Wainwright | 2m01.282s | 5.241s |
| 31 | 13 | #60 Iron Lynx | Claudio Schiavoni | 2m01.941s | 5.900s |
