The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi, and Ryo Hirakawa will start the 2023 Bahrain 8 Hours Endurance Race from pole position. New Zealander Hartley set the fastest lap in Bahrain qualifying with a time of 1 minute 46.564 seconds, taking pole position by just under half a second. In second place was Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 Toyota car, whose GR010 Hybrid had taken pole position in the past two races.
Hartley’s pole win was a small but important step towards the World Hypercar Drivers’ Championship for the No. 8 trio. Thanks to the extra points awarded for pole position, Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa only need to finish third to clinch the championship. Without the extra points, if they had won the race, the team in car No. 7 would have finished third and taken the title.
Cadillac Racing will start the season finale in Bahrain on the second row after a strong performance from Alex Lynn behind the wheel of the #2 V-Series.R. The #2 crew will share his second row with the #6 Porsche of Estre/Lotteler/Vinthoor.
Ferrari, competing for glory in the World Hypercar Drivers’ Championship, will also start the eight-hour race from fifth and sixth on the grid. The #50 and #51 crews both have a chance to win the title, but it depends on some major drama affecting his two Toyota cars.
United Autosports takes LMP2 pole
The #23 United Autosport Oreca started Saturday’s final race of the season from pole position in the LMP2 category, with Tom Blomqvist putting together a perfect lap to take the lead by two-tenths of a second.
The #36 Alpine Elf Team entry will line up with #23 in the front row, with the #31 Team WRT crew and #10 Vector Sport behind them in the second row.
Championship leaders Louis Andrade, Robert Kubica and Rui Deletraz had poor qualifying and will start the race from 10th. Eighth place is enough for the trio to win the drivers and teams titles, but failure could open the door for the No. 34 Inter Europol and No. 22 United Autosport crews. There is.
Last GTE Am pole goes to Iron Dames
Sarah Bobby in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR will be the final pole sitter in the GTE Am category, making her final appearance in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Bobby’s time of 1:58.692 was about three-tenths faster than the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin.
The race will start at 12pm Central European Time. Follow all the action with our live ticker.