WEC – The #14 Porsche on pole for the 6 Hours of Bahrain

This is the third time this season after Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) and Shanghai (China) that the No. 919 14 Hybrid of Jani-Dumas-Lieb has found itself on pole. Thanks to an average time of 1'43"145 achieved by Neel Jani and Romain Dumas, the Porsche was able to get ahead of the Toyota n°8 of the Championship leaders Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson. More than a second from the benchmark, the second row will be similar since the second Porsche driven by Bernhard-Webber-Hartley will start next to the No. 040 TS7 Hybrid of Wurz-Sarrazin-Conway. A result which is identical to the previous event in Asia.

It's still a mess at Audi with the No. 18 R2 of Lotterer-Fässler-Tréluyer in fifth position with more than two seconds behind pole, while the No. 1 sister car of Duval-Di Grassi-Kristensen was unable to take part in the session following a change of monohull. The Rebellion R-One n°12 by Cheers-Heidfeld-Beche leads the sister car #13 of Kraihamer-Belicchi-Leimer. The Lotus CLM P1/01-AER driven by Kaffer-Trummer-Berthon only took 11th position, four seconds behind the first LM1-L.

G-Drive Racing unsurprisingly takes the LMP2 pole with the Ligier JSP2-Nissan of Pla-Rusinov-Canal credited with a time of 1'50"236 where it is seven tenths ahead of the two Oreca 03R-Nissans of SMP Racing, the n°27 of Zlobin-Minassian-Mediani pointing in front of the n°37 of Ladygin-Shaitar-Ladygin.

Aston Martin distinguished himself in GTE by taking pole in the Pro and Am categories. The #97 Vantage of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke set the benchmark for GTE Pro with an average lap of 1'58"805 to beat the competitors by a few tenths. Ferrari of AF Corse, with the #458 F51 of Bruni-Vilander occupying second place ahead of the #71 of Rigon-Calado. In GTE Am, it was the No. 95 of Poulsen-Heinemeier Hansson-Thiim which set the best time with an average of 1’59”589.

The start of the 6 Hours of Bahrain will be given tomorrow at 13 p.m. French time and will be followed live on Motors TV.