TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will start from the front after comfortably winning the 8 Hours of Bahrain qualifying round, the final round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Brendon Hartley in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, shared with Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa, took pole position with a lap of 1 minute 46.564 seconds. Kamui Kobayashi completed the team’s one-two with a 0.489 second delay in the #7 GR010 HYBRID driven by Mike Conway and Jose María López.
The #8 GR010 HYBRID took its second pole position of the season, extending its lead in the title race to 16 points over its teammate #7. Therefore, if Sebastian, Brendon and Ryo finish on the podium in Saturday’s race, they will be guaranteed to retain the Drivers’ World Championship.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is already confirmed as Manufacturers’ World Champion and aims to finish the 2023 season in style with a seventh straight win in Bahrain, following the team’s fifth pole position and third front row win. ing.
After Thursday’s rain and high winds, qualifying began on a warm, dry evening just after sunset. Both GR010 HYBRIDs opted for medium compound Michelin tires and waited three minutes in the pits before starting qualifying. Brendon, who took pole position in Bahrain last year, was the first GR010 HYBRID to take to the track, closely followed by Kamui, the hypercar lap record holder at this circuit.
After taking two laps to warm up his tires, Brendon quickly moved to the top of the timesheets on his first flying lap, with Kamui taking provisional second place. Both drivers set fast times in the first sector of the following laps, but tire deterioration was significant, especially in Bahrain, so they quickly returned to the pits for the final moments of the 15-minute session.
None of the other 10 hypercar participants on hard compound tires could come close to their pace, and qualifying ended with Kamui’s Brendon taking pole position. This means everyone will have a front row spot in the GR010 HYBRID for Saturday’s race, which starts at 2pm local time (4pm CET). .
Kamui Kobayashi (team representative and driver, car No. 7): “Congratulations to Brendon. He did a great lap and got pole position. It didn’t work out well for me and to be honest I did a better lap in practice than in qualifying. I recorded it. I was a little surprised with the lap time, but I don’t know what happened. But we are still second on the grid and it’s an eight-hour race so what really matters is tomorrow. Regarding the championship. In other words, nothing will change for our car. We have to win, so we will go into the race with the same feeling as always. It will be a long race, there will be a lot of tire degradation, and a lot of things can happen. Yes. I’ll do my best.”
Brendon Hartley (driver, car 8): “I was determined to get pole position and I’m very happy to have achieved that. The car felt great. The team did a great job getting everything set right for me. It’s a tricky track for qualifying because you only really get one lap, so you have to get everything in line. I felt like my lap wasn’t perfect, but it was very clean. Pole position is an important position that will give you points for the World Championship, which is why the team focused on qualifying and used medium tires. This point could be very important because it means we can win. But we don’t approach the race any differently than we normally do. We have to go for the win. This year’s race start will be action-packed, so starting from pole position is the best option.”
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