On this day, Brandon Hartley, driving the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, recorded the fastest time of 01:46.564. The pole position gave the New Zealander and his teammates Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa a 16-point lead over the sister No. 7 crew of Kamui Kobayashi, who was second on the starting grid. The showdown between his two lineups for the FIA Endurance Hypercar Driver trophy begins!
Cadillac Racing’s #2 Cadillac V Series.R will start tomorrow (01:47.265) in third place, with Porsche Penske Motorsports driver Kevin Estre taking fourth place in his team’s Porsche 963. Ferrari AF Corse qualified in 5th and 6th place with #50 499P. Before #51. Rounding out the hypercar field were the #5 Porsche, Proton Competition’s #99 Porsche, Hertz Team JOTA’s #38 Porsche, Peugeot Total Energy’s #93 and #94 Peugeot 9X8, and #4 Floyd Vanwall.
In LMP2, Tom Blomqvist showed off his talents to the fullest behind the wheel of United Autosports’ #23 ORECA 07-Gibson, setting an incredible time of 01:52.29 on his second qualifying lap. Charles Milesi placed Alpine Elf Team’s #36 ORECA in second place, just 0.2 seconds behind pole position. Team WRT’s #31 ORECA, currently the leader in the FIA Endurance LMP2 team trophy standings, will start the race in 3rd place in its class. The rest of the top six includes Vector Sports ahead of United Autosports and Prema Racing.
The Iron Dames took their third pole position of the season in the #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Sarah Bobby dominated her opponents with a best time of 01:58.692. She and teammates Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frei are aiming for victory in the 2023 FIA WEC finals and second place in the FIA Endurance LMGTE Am team’s title run. D’Station Racing’s No. 777 Aston Martin qualified in 2nd place, ahead of ORT’s TF Aston Martin, No. 25. Rounding out the top six were Kessel Racing’s No. 57 Ferrari, Corvette Racing’s No. 33 Corvette, and Northwest AMR/Heart of Racing’s No. 98 Aston Martin.
Please click here for the qualifying results.
The start of the 2023 BAPCO Bahrain 6 Hours will take place on Saturday 4th November at 10:00 GMT.