WEC – 1st 100% Toyota line in Bahrain

Alexander Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima (who share the wheel of the TS030 Hybrid n°7 with Nicolas lapierre) took pole position a few moments ago for the 6 Hours of Bahrain, the closing round of the WEC 2013. With an average time over four laps of 1'42"449, they beat the sister car, the No. 8 (at the wheel of which Stéphane Sarrazin and Anthony Davidson took turns) by 0"332. Tomorrow, the first row of the starting grid will therefore be 100% in the colors of Toyota. But be careful, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro are not far away. No. 1 (entrusted during qualifying to Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer) and no. 2 (in the hands of Loïc duval and Allan McNish) next at 0”527 and 0”696 respectively.

With an average time over four laps of 1'58"833, Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb took pole position in the GTE Pro at the wheel of their Porsche 911 RSR n°92. The Stuttgart firm even offers itself a double, the n°91 of Jörg Bergmeister-Patrick Pilet following at 0 »127. In third place, at 0 »205, we find theAston Martin No. 8 V97 Vantage of Darren Turner-Stefan Mücke, championship leaders. There Ferrari 58 Italia AF Corse n°51 of the duo Toni Vilander-Gianmaria Bruni and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage n°99 of Richie Stanaway-Pedro Lamy-Bruno Senna complete the top 5 at respectively 0”216 and 0”334 from the reference time . The 458 Italia n°71 of Kamui Kobayashi-Giancarlo Fisichella brings up the rear, with a delay of 0”626. In the end, the six protagonists in the category are therefore grouped into less than seven tenths. Note that this is the first time this season that pole position in GTE Pro has not gone to an Aston Martin.

The Gaydon firm consoled itself by taking the best time in GTE Am thanks to the No. 8 V95 Vantage of Christoffer Nygaard-Kristian Poulsen-Nicki Thiim (2’00”303). The Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia 8 of Rui Aguas-Enzo Potolicchio-Davide Rigon follows at 044034, ahead of the #96 Aston of Stuart Hall, Roeld Gathe and Jamie Campbell-Walter. Still in the running for the title, the team's No. 911 Porsche 3 GT76 RSR Imsa Performance Matmut, at the wheel of which we find Jean-Karl Vernay, Raymond Narac and Markus Palttala, is fifth, just behind the #458 AF Corse Ferrari 61 aboard which takes turns Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Matt Griffin.

See you tomorrow at 13 p.m. French time for the start of the six hours from Bahrain. As a reminder, seven titles are still to be awarded.

Starting grid for the 6 Hours of Bahrain:
  1. LM P1 – Toyota #7 (Wurz-Nakajima-Lapierre) 1?42??449
  2. LM P1 – Toyota #8 (Sarrazin-Davidson-Buemi) 1?42??781
  3. LM P1 – Audi #1 (Lotterer-Fässler-Tréluyer) 1?42??976
  4. LM P1 – Audi #2 (McNish-Duval-Kristensen) 1?43??145
  5. LM P1 – Lola-Toyota #12 (Beche-N. Cheers-Belicchi) 1?46??728
  6. LM P2 – Oreca-Nissan #49 (Minassian-Kaffer-Perez Companc) 1?50??941
  7. LM P2 – Oreca-Nissan #26 (J. Martin-Conway-Rusinov) 1?51?003
  8. LM P2 – Morgan-Nissan #24 (Pla-A. Brundle-Heinemeier Hansson) 1?51??178
  9. LM P2 – Zytek-Nissan #41 (Wirdheim-Lancaster-Reip) 1?51??841
10. LM P2 – Oreca-Nissan #25 (Dolby-Kerr-Giroix) 1?52??133
11. LM P2 – Morgan-Nissan #35 (Baguette-Plowman-Gonzalez) 1?52??377
12. LM P2 – Lotus #31 (Liuzzi-Auer-Weeda) 1?53??217
13. LM P2 – Lotus #32 (Kraihamer-Charouz-T. Holzer) 1?53??584
14. LM P2 – Morgan-Nissan #45 (Ihara-D. Cheng-Nicolet) 1:54:033
15. GTE Pro – Porsche #92 (Lieb-Lietz) 1?58??833
16. GTE Pro – Porsche #91 (Bergmeister-Pilet) 1?58??960
17. GTE Pro – Aston Martin #97 (Turner-Mücke) 1?59??038
18. GTE Pro – Ferrari #51 (Bruni-Vilander) 1?59??049
19. GTE Pro – Aston Martin #99 (B. Senna-Stanaway-Lamy) 1?59??167
20. GTE Pro – Ferrari #71 (Kobayashi-Fisichella) 1?59??469
21. GTE Am – Aston Martin #95 (N. Thiim-Nygaard-Poulsen) 2:00??303
22. GTE Am – Ferrari #81 (Rigon-Aguas-Potolicchio) 2:00??337
23. GTE Am – Aston Martin #96 (Hall-Campbell Walter-Goethe) 2:00??496
24. GTE Am – Ferrari #61 (Collard-Griffin-Perrodo) 2:00??527
25. GTE Am – Porsche #76 (Palttala-Vernay-Narac) 2:00??880
26. GTE Am – Porsche #88 (Ruberti-Roda-Ried) 2?01??290
27. GTE Am – Ferrari #57 (Jönsson-Mediani-Krohn) 2:01??563
28. GTE Am – Corvette #50 (Bornhauser-Canal-Rees) No time (Alternator)