Bahrain Friday Notebook

***Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed its 23rd front-row lockout in the FIA World Endurance Championship, while Brendon Hartley took his fifth pole under the current single-driver qualifying format that has been used since 2021. Hartley beat Kamui Kobayashi by almost half a second, with both on medium tires. “[Kobayashi] had a few issues,” said Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon. “He could not replicate his quali sim and Brendon did a very good performance.”

***The No. 7 Toyota was put under investigation after qualifying due to a pit lane infringement, but Vasselon was unperturbed: “They had to park nose-in and they left the car there too long when the car should be parallel. I think we will get a warning.”

***Iron Dames driver Sarah Bovy earned the 24th pole for Porsche in the GTE-Am class. Significantly, it ensured that the manufacturer’s GTE-Am haul earned by customer teams eclipsed the 23 pole positions earned by its factory GTE-Pro operation.

***Cadillac emerged upbeat about its chances for the eight-hour race after Alex Lynn recorded the manufacturer’s best qualifying result of the season in third. “The main thing I think is we’re quick on one lap and we’re quick on the long run,” he said.

***GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser said to “not expect any surprises” with Cadillac Racing’s driver lineup next year in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R, indicating that Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook will all be back. She said a formal announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

***Klauser ruled out seeing a second Cadillac Hypercar entry in any of the regular season WEC races next year due to clashes with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. CGR entered a second car in this year’s 6 Hours of Spa with its IMSA crew.

***She told Sportscar365: “The schedule doesn’t allow it. The only race prior to Le Mans that doesn’t have a clash is Qatar and if you look logistically on what it would take to move everything, it’s insane.”

***Sportscar365 understands that TF Sport, which is set to be Corvette’s designated LMGT3 team next year, will utilize two yet-to-be-announced factory drivers in its lineup, with those drivers potentially also running the Michelin Endurance Cup races with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD Pro.

***TF does not expect to test the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R again before the end of this year, team principal Tom Ferrier indicated to Sportscar365. As previously reported, the British team is awaiting a mid-January delivery of the cars. It first got acquainted with the car at Circuit of The Americas in August.

***Peugeot matched its Fuji qualifying result of tenth and 11th, with Stellantis VP of Motorsport Jean-Marc Finot saying the outcome was expected. “There are seven corners at low speed where we can not use our front axle so we can’t put the power down and we are losing a lot,” he told Sportscar365. “Unfortunately it was expected. It’s more demanding [in] qualifying. I think that tomorrow in the race pace it should be closer.”

***Nico Mueller’s run was curtailed by what Finot described as a software glitch with the power steering on the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8.

***The Vanwall Vandervell 680 Gibson will be forced to serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race due to Esteban Guerrieri loosening his belts on his in-lap during Free Practice 3.

***Ryan Briscoe said he needed to adapt to a different seating position in the ByKolles-built Vanwall after spending the past three seasons driving the Glickenhaus 007 Pipo. “In the Glickenhaus I was all stretched out and stretching to reach the pedals, in here I’m like the opposite,” he told Sportscar365. “Everything’s very close and because of that I’m having to left foot brake, which I haven’t done in about ten years.”

***Briscoe wasn’t able to get his own seat insert made and is instead using the same one as Guerrieri. “I tried what they had and Esteban’s seat is comfortable for me. I think we’re about the same size.”

***Several drivers set to participate in Sunday’s rookie test arrived in the paddock on Friday, including Thomas Preining, Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth, as well as newly crowned European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion Kyffin Simpson.

***ABB FIA Formula E Championship driver and two-time WEC overall race winner Norman Nato was also spotted in the paddock, liaising with Hertz Team JOTA.

***Valentino Rossi’s LMP2 test on Sunday is something that Team WRT’s Vincent Vosse promised to the former MotoGP star two years ago. “The first time we discussed together in 2021, I promised him that I would put him in the LMP2 car once,” Vosse told Sportscar365. “We made a seat mid-season last year, but it did not work out. Here is our last chance to put him in the car.”

***Rossi and Sean Gelael are understood to be prime candidates for the Belgian team’s Silver-rated drivers in its planned BMW M4 GT3s next year. Gelael retained his Silver rating after lodging an appeal with the FIA. When asked about their prospects, Vosse said: “Of course it looks there, but it’s not something which has been officially confirmed.”

***Vosse added that WRT is continuing to test for potential Bronze-rated LMGT3 drivers. “We did already two tests and we are going to do one more next week at Paul Ricard, and then we should be in a position to decide,” he said. “We tested around ten drivers.”

***Louis Deletraz’s qualifying run in the points-leading No. 41 WRT Oreca was affected by a lock-up at Turn 1 on his first flyer according to sporting director Thierry Tassin. WRT also had trouble with the car’s brakes early in the event and changed them in FP3, compromising its qualifying preparation.

***The No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R carries a special message heading into this weekend’s final GTE-Am race, having the words ‘Thank You!’ stickered on the strip above the windshield.

***It’s currently unclear if Roman De Angelis, who was upgraded from Silver to Gold rating by the FIA, will be part of The Heart of Racing’s WEC program or whether the Canadian will return to the WeatherTech Championship in 2024. De Angelis recently tested Aston’s updated GT3 car in a Goodyear tire test at Portimao.

***Team principal Ian James said on De Angelis’ placement for next year: “It’s still a bit fluid. Obviously it was a late surprise [that he got upgraded]. We’ve got a bunch of drivers on the roster so we’re just figuring it all out. We’ll have a decision after this week.”

****Bahrain marks the final race for long-time PR representative Fiona Miller, who had a lengthy stint working with the FIA World Endurance Championship prior to teaming up with Vector Sport over the last two seasons.

***Roger Penske is not present this weekend, with the Porsche Penske Motorsport owner missing his first WEC race this season in order to be with his team’s NASCAR Cup Series program for the title-deciding race at Phoenix Raceway. Penske driver Ryan Blaney is in the final four for the championship.

***Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid believes the new WEC qualifying format for next year, which will feature two stages culminating in ‘Hyperpole’, will create “additional excitement” to the weekend.

***Diuguid told Sportscar365: “There’s a green approach of trying to reduce the tire allocation so teams are always looking forward to the race when they’re taking to qualifying. I think this new approach maybe takes some of that away so you are going to see some more of these battles and people going for the pole. I view it as a positive and I view it as another opportunity to bring some excitement to the fans.”

***Diuguid praised the use of the FIA and ACO’s first platform Balance of Performance change in the Hypercar class, which has seen a slight weight and energy adjustment to the Porsche 963 and Cadillac V-Series.R, the two WEC prototypes built to the LMDh ruleset.

***He said: “It’s good that the FIA and WEC took an opportunity to make a change this weekend to try and validate some of their tools in the last race of the year and maybe have some further discussions at the end of the season on how we go forward.”

***The 8 Hours of Bahrain gets underway at 2 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT).

John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report