Brendon Hartley set a 1m46.714s in this evening’s Hypercar Hyperpole session in Bahrain to claim pole position for tomorrow’s FIA WEC season finale, leading a front-row lockout for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Hartley’s flyer in the No. 8 GR010 HYBRID came with more than four minutes left on the clock. It was fast enough to put him three-tenths clear of Nyck de Vries in the sister No. 7 car which slotted in second moments later with a 1m47.037s.
“Big thanks to my teammates for trusting me to do qualifying,” Hartley said. “Yesterday we were not happy with the car, we’ve turned it around. It’s never perfect but I learned from Quali 1, and in Hyperpole the car came alive. It’s been a tough year for car 8 so we want to finish the year on a high.”
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The second row of the grid will be occupied by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P and the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche after strong efforts from Antonio Giovinazzi and Neel Jani respectively.
The No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari will start fifth, 0.8s off. Crucially though, both of the drivers’ title-contending crews from Toyota and Ferrari (in the No. 7 and No. 50) will start ahead of the points-leading No. 6 Porsche which will line up sixth on the grid ahead of the No. 5.
A few key cars failed to make it into the top-10 shootout, including the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R — which took pole last time out — and both Alpine A424s.
After having his penultimate lap deleted for track limits, Alex Lynn pushed on his final flyer at the end of the session but would only climb to 13th from the bottom of the pile in the Cadillac.
“That was my lap,” Lynn told RACER. “That was going to be the one before it was deleted, as it’s a one-lap shootout here really because of deg.”
Mick Schumacher, meanwhile, ended up 17th in the No. 36 Alpine. The German ran wide and off-track at the final corner in the closing seconds of the session after improving through Sectors 1 and 2.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari which won Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas will also start outside the top 10 (in 12th), as will the pair of Peugeot 9X8s that set the pace in two of the three practice sessions prior to qualifying. The No. 94 claimed 15th on the grid ahead of the No. 93 that will start last after having three of its laps deleted due to a technical infringement. Jean-Eric Vergne explained that the car suffered with power issues, which caused the engine to cut out and ultimately led to the infringement.
“We should have the pace to be able to fight for points tomorrow though,” he added.
In LMGT3, United Autosports locked out the front row with its pair of McLaren GT3 Evos with head-turning efforts from Josh Caygill and James Cottingham.
Caygill put the No. 95 on top, delivering United its first LMGT3 pole and McLaren its second this season (after Inception took pole at Le Mans) with a 2m02.201s. But there was almost nothing to separate the two McLarens, as Cottingham placed the No. 59 second with a time just two thousandths off.
“We had a really good car for quali,” Caygill said. “We worked on race setup and tire management in practice and never showed our ultimate pace. I was happy with the lap, lost a bit at the last corner but overall it’s good.”
The top three in the class were completed by the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, Francois Heriau steering his 296 to a 2m02.367s in the Hyperpole shootout.
Sarah Bovy placed the Iron Dames Lamborghini on the second row in fourth with her effort, ahead of the title-winning Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche which will start tomorrow’s race fifth.
After topping two of the three practice sessions, AKKODIS ASP only managed to sneak one of its Lexus RC F LMGT3s into Hyperpole, though Arnold Robin was unable to improve on 10th. The No. 78 will start behind the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, Fuji-winning Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the pair of TF Sport Corvettes, which will line up sixth through ninth.
D’Station’s Aston Martin came closest to making it into the second part of the LMGT3 sessions, qualifying 11th with a time from Clement Mateu that was just a tenth off making the cut.
Both Team WRT BMWs also failed to make it through, along with the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche and both Proton Ford Mustangs.
Tomorrow’s eight-hour WEC season finale at the Bahrain International Circuit is set to get underway at 2pm local time.