Toyota Claims First Pole in a Year at Bahrain

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Kamui Kobayashi set a 1:46.826 in the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid that ended up being a tenth of a second faster than the sister No. 8 machine of Brendon Hartley to complete a 1-2 at a track where the Japanese manufacturer has a very strong record.

Next up were the pair of Peugeot 9X8s, the No. 94 car of Malte Jakobsen posting a 1:47.166 to fractionally pip teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in the No. 93 entry.

The best of the Cadillac V-Series.Rs was fifth-fastest, despite taking a Balance of Performance hit in Bahrain following its run of three poles in the past four races. Alex Lynn posted a 1:47.543 to trail the Toyotas by 0.7 seconds.

Rounding out the top six was the pick of the Aston Martin Valkyries, which had displayed impressive performance throughout free practice. Marco Sorensen set a 1:47.624 in the No. 009 car.

The Aston was a tenth quicker than points leader Antonio Giovinazzi in the best of the Ferrari 499Ps, the No. 51 entry.

Rounding out the top ten were the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963 of Julien Andlauer, the second Aston Martin – which had topped first qualifying before Ross Gunn went off on one of his Hyperpole efforts – and the lead BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor. The entire top 10 was separated by 1.31 seconds.

While the No. 51 Ferrari progressed to Hyperpole, there was disappointment for the other two 499P crews, which will share the sixth row of the grid, Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 car a hundredth ahead of Robert Kubica in the No. 83 machine.

Also eliminated from Hyperpole were both Alpine A424s, the pick of which was the No. 36 car of Jules Gounon in 13th. They sandwiched the second of the Cadillacs, the No. 38 entry of Earl Bamber.

The No. 20 BMW, the privateer Proton Porsche and the No. 6 Porsche of Kevin Estre, which encountered the sister No. 5 during its hot lap, brought up the rear of the field.

Lexus on Pole Again in LMGT3 as Mercedes-AMG Impresses

Lexus again led the way in the LMGT3 class with Finn Gehrsitz in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP entry giving the brand a second pole of the season.

Gehrsitz headed the leaderboard throughout the Hyperpole session with his 2:01.661 time on his second flier not being bettered.

The Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG squad enjoyed its strongest showing of the season to line up second and third, Lorcan Hanafin in the No. 60 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo pipping the sister No. 61 car of Lin Hodenius by just 0.02 seconds, but they were both three tenths adrift of the leading Lexus.

The second Lexus RC F GT3 of Clemens Schmid – which endured a gearbox problem that left it with virtually no running in FP2 – was fourth, two-tenths further back.

Next up was the best of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, the No. 31 machine of Timur Boguslavskiy, while the top six was completed by Zacharie Robichon in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo – the last car within a second of the pole-sitter.

Seventh fastest was Giammarco Levorato in the lead No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, while the first of the title contenders – Simon Mann in the Vista AF Corse No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3 – could only manage eighth.

The top ten was completed by the No. 46 BMW of Valentino Rossi and the pick of the United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, the No. 59 car.

Neither Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R progressed to Hyperpole, the No. 33 will line up 11th while the title-fighting No. 81 machine was only 14th.

Porsche brought up the rear of the LMGT3 leaderboard with the points-leading No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ryan Hardwick down in 17th.

The No. 54 Ferrari headed to the pits after completing an installation lap and was worked on in the garage, resulting in it being under investigation by officials. Thomas Flohr did head back out was only 16th.

The eight-hour Bahrain season finale is due to start Saturday at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying