Toyota on pole, Peugeot in ambush: the starting grid for the 2025 Bahrain 8 Hours

There was Fuji's debacle, on the Japanese manufacturer's historic home turf. Perhaps Bahrain will awaken to... ToyotaThanks to its No. 7 car, the Japanese firm achieved a masterstroke by securing pole position for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the World Championship.EnduranceEven better, the GR010 Hybrid from Conway, Kobayashi et De Vries is followed on the grid by her sister, number 8, who completes the first row.

While Toyota can legitimately aspire to victory, it will have to be wary of... Peugeot , positioned in the second row, with the presence of the newcomer's number 94 Theo Pourchaire ahead of the No. 93 of Jean-Éric Vergne, who is competing in his last race as a full-time driver for Peugeot. The French 9X8s managed to hold off the Aston Martin Valkyrie, who showed very good pace in qualifying.

Ultimately, car #009 finished in 6th place, while car #007 came in 9th. Between the Gaydon Valkyries were two Hypercars whose performances would be closely watched: the Ferrari No. 51 (7th) will try to achieve the best possible performance to bring the title back to Italy, while the Porsche No. 5 (8th) will do his utmost to deny the Reds the title.

However, it was more complicated for the sister cars: the No. 50 Ferrari finished only 11th, while the No. 6 Porsche was 18th and last among the Hypercars. The day wasn't any better for Alpine, with the 13th place on the grid for No. 36, two places ahead of No. 35 (15th).

Finally, in LMGT3, the French team Akkodis ASP took the honors of the protocol thanks to its Lexus #78, which finished ahead of the Mercedes Iron Lynx numbers 60 and 61. The Bahrain 8 Hours will be covered in full via live text commentary on AUTOhebdo.fr on Saturday from 12pm French time.

ALSO READ > Toyota on pole for the 8 Hours of Bahrain, Peugeot on the second row

WEC – Bahrain 8 Hours
The starting grid

Hypercar

1) Toyota GR010 Hybrid nº7 (M. Conway / K. Kobayashi / N. de Vries)
2) Toyota GR010 Hybrid nº8 (S. Buemi (B. Hartley / R. Hirakawa)
3) Peugeot 9X8 No. 94 (L. Duval (Mr. Jakobsen / T. Pourchaire)
4) Peugeot 9X8 nº93 (P. di Resta / M. Jensen / J. Vergne)
5) Cadillac V-Series.R nº12 (A. Lynn / N. Nato / W. Stevens)
6) Aston Martin Valkyrie nº009 (A. Riberas / M. Sørensen / R. de Angelis)
7) Ferrari 499P nº51 (A. Pier Guidi / J. Calado / A. Giovinazzi)
8) Porsche 963 nº5 (J. Andlauer / M. Jaminet / L. Heinrich)
9) Aston Martin Valkyrie nº007 (H. Tincknell / T. Gamble / R. Gunn)
10) BMW M Hybrid V8 nº15 (D. Vanthoor / R. Marciello / K. Magnussen)
11) Ferrari 499P nº50 (A. Fuoco / M. Molina / N. Nielsen)
12) Ferrari 499P nº83 (R. Kubica / Y. Ye / P. Hanson)
13) Alpine A424 nº36 (J. Gounon / F. Makowiecki / M. Schumacher)
14) Cadillac V-Series.R nº38 (E. Bamber / S. Bourdais (J. Button)
15) Alpine A424 nº35 (P. Chatin / F. Habsburg / C. Milesi)
16) BMW M Hybrid V8 nº20 (R. Rast / R. Frijns / S. van der Linde)
17) Porsche 963 nº99 (N. Jani / N. Pino / N. Varrone)
18) Porsche 963 nº6 (K. Estre / M. Campbell / L. Vanthoor)

LMGT3

19) Lexus RC F nº78 (A. Robin / F. Gehrsitz / B. Barnicoat)
20) Mercedes-AMG nº60 (A. Gilbert / L. Hanafin / F. Rueda)
21) Mercedes-AMG nº61 (M. Berry / L. Hodenius / M. Martin)
22) Lexus RC F nº87 (P. Umbrarescu / C. Schmid / J. López)
23) BMW M4 nº31 (Y. Shahin / T. Boguslavskiy / A. Farfus)
24) Aston Martin Vantage nº27 (I. James / Z. Robichon / M. Drudi)
25) Ford Mustang nº88 (S. Gattuso / G. Levorato / D. Olsen)
26) Ferrari 296 nº21 (F. Hériau / S. Mann / A. Rovera)
27) BMW M4 nº46 (A. Al Harthy / V. Rossi / K. van der Linde)
28) McLaren 720S nº59 (J. Cottingham / S. Baud / G. Saucy)
29) Corvette Z06.R nº33 (B. Keating / J. Edgar / D. Juncadella)
30) McLaren 720S nº95 (D. Leung / S. Gelael / M. Sato)
31) Ford Mustang nº77 (B. Sousa / B. Tuck / B. Barker)
32) Corvette Z06.R nº81 (T. van Rompuy / R. Andrade / C. Eastwood)
33) Aston Martin Vantage AMR nº10 (A. McIntosh / E. Barrichello / V. Hasse Clot)
34) Ferrari 296 nº54 (T. Flohr / F. Castellacci / D. Rigon)
35) Porsche 911 nº92 (R. Hardwick / R. Pera / R. Lietz)
36) Porsche 911 nº85 (C. Martin / R. Frey / M. Gatting)