Bahrain 8H – Qualifying: Toyota in pole position ahead of Peugeot

La Toyota n°8 ideally launches his duel with Alpine for the title thanks to Brendon Hartley. The New Zealander took pole position for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, pushing his opponents back by almost a second. Paul di Resta took second position at 0.810 seconds on the Peugeot 9X8 n°93 in front of the second Toyota, the n°7 led by Mike conway at 0.938 seconds. L'Alpine will only start from fifth place this Saturday.

In LM P2, while pole seemed to be in the hands of Jota and Will Stevens, the Briton was surprised in the final moments by Norman Nato. The Frenchman from Realteam by WRT set the best time of the session in 1:50.330. Filipe Albuquerque completed the podium for United Autosports.

In GTE Pro, Porsche confirmed his good form during Free Practice by dominating the qualifying session. Gianmaria Bruni set the best time in the qualifying session in 1:56.143. The Italian beat his compatriot Antonio Fuoco on the Ferrari n°52 of AF Corse by 0.276 seconds. Michael Christensen took third place, 0.296 seconds behind in the No. 92 Porsche. Alessandro Pier Guidi made a mistake on the AF Corse n°51.

As for the GTE Am, it's a new pole position for the Iron Dames this season. Sarah Bovy set the fastest lap of the session in 1:59.186. The Belgian beat Ben Keating on theAston Martin Vantage AMR n°33 from TF Sport at 0.512 seconds. Christian Ried completed the podium at 0.522 seconds in the No. 911 Porsche 19 RSR – 77.

Meet at noon this Saturday for the start of the 8 Hours of Bahrain (14 p.m. in Bahrain), final round of the 2022 season of WEC. 

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