Toyota Locks Out Front Row for 6H Sao Paulo

Toyota Gazoo Racing scored a lockout of the front row for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo as Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap in Saturday afternoon’s Hyperpole shootout aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Kobayashi set what proved to be an unassailable benchmark of 1:23.140 on his first representative lap in chilly conditions at the Interlagos circuit, giving Toyota a first pole of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Sebastien Buemi proved Kobayashi’s nearest challenger in the sister No. 8 Toyota but fell 0.122 seconds shy of the top spot.

Best of the rest was the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry of Matt Campbell, who had earlier topped the first segment of qualifying with a best time of 1:23.263.

But Campbell, who suffered an off on his out lap, couldn’t replicate that pace in Hyperpole as he ended up just under two tenths shy of Kobayashi’s benchmark.

Fourth-fastest was Alex Lynn aboard the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R ahead of the second of the Penske Porsche 963s, the points-leading No. 6 car of Kevin Estre.

The fastest of Ferrari’s newly-upgraded 499Ps, the No. 50 car, was only able to qualify sixth with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel, while the No. 51 machine was only ninth-fastest in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Splitting the two Italian machines were the Hertz Team JOTA Porsches, Callum Ilott’s No. 12 car leading Jenson Button in the No. 38 car.

Rounding out the Hyperpole order in 10th was the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Robin Frijns.

Alpine narrowly failed to make the Hyperpole cut as Mick Schumacher qualified the faster of the A424s, the No. 36 car, in 11th place.

Peugeot suffered another disappointing session with its pair of 9X8s, which ended up 16th- and 17th-fastest ahead of the solo Lamborghini SC63 and the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione.

Iron Dames Beats Manthey PureRxcing to LMGT3 Pole

In the LMGT3 class, Sarah Bovy scored Iron Dames’ second pole position of the season aboard her No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, beating Alex Malykhin’s Manthey PureRxcing Porsche by 0.391 seconds.

Bovy topped the first part of LMGT3 qualifying with a best time of 1:35.299 before upping the ante to a 1:34.413 in the 10-minute Hyperpole session.

Malykhin’s late effort of 1:34.804 aboard the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R pushed down the best of the United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, the No. 59 car of James Cottingham, to third place.

Josh Caygill ensured an all-McLaren second row in the No. 95 United entry ahead of the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Yasser Shahin.

The red flags came out early in the session after a spin exiting Turn 4 for Thomas Flohr’s No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Flohr was able to get back to the pits unaided but did not set a lap time.

The 6 Hours of Sao Paulo is due to begin Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying