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Porsche has claimed the pole position WEC’s the 6 Hours of Bahrain as Neel Jani and Romain Dumas split their qualifying duties in the No.14 Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1-H during the 25-minute session to combine an overall four lap average time of 1:43.145. That time was 0.264seconds quicker than current series title leaders Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson in the No.8 Toyota Racing TS 040 Hybrid.

Jani was fastest in the second and third practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit and carried that speed over to qualifying starting a run early in the session putting down a lap of 1:41.897 to set the best ever LMP1 lap at that circuit. Romain Dumas then took over the driving duties after 11 minutes of the session and also layed down a succession of quick laps to lower the average time and ultimately seal the overall pole position along with the extra point awarded for the pole.

The Porsche Team made some small but significant mechanical changes to the 919 Hybrid since the last race at Shanghai and they hope those changes will contribute a sustained challenge to Toyota Racing in tomorrow’s race. The aim for Porsche is to score their first race victory since their return to the top class of endurance racing.

Meanwhile, Davidson and Buemi continued their 2014 World Endurance Championship title quest with the second fastest overall times in qualifying and will line up the No.8 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid nest to the Porsche on the rolling front-row. The pair needs to finish fifth or higher in the LMP1-H class to seal the 2014 FIA WEC crown.

In row two will be the No.20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Marc Lieb and the No.7 Toyota Racing entry of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.

The No.1 Audi of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler will start in the fifth spot on the starting grid. the No.2 Audi crew will have a mountain to climb if they are to pull off an unlikely late title challenge to the Toyota. The Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas Di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval sat out the qualifying session after their chassis was being replaced due to an issue with the floor mountings of the car. The newly built-up Audi R18 e-tron Quattro will start from the rear of the LMP1 grid after being re-scrutineered by the FIA Technical Delegate once the work is completed.

In the LMP1-L class, the in-house Rebellion Racing qualifying battle was won by the No.12 Rebellion R-One Toyota, as Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost bettered the sister No.13 Rebellion R-One driven by Fabio Leimer and Dominik Kraihamer by six-tenths of a second.

The LMP2 class pole went to G-Drive Racing as they claimed their sixth pole of the season. Roman Rusinov and then Olivier Pla demonstrated the pace of the No.26 Ligier JS P2 coupe to lead their title rivals in the No.27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan driven as usual in qualifying by Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani. The Russian’s second Michelin shod Oreca-Nissan placed third with Kiril Ladygin and Viktor Shaitar piloting the red, white and blue car to an average four-lap time just 0.080 seconds slower than their sister car.

Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke in the No.97 Vantage V8 claimed their second pole of the season in the LMGTE Pro category with a 4-lap average lap time of 1:58.805, while the No.95 Aston Martin of Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeier Hansson and Nicki Thiim claimed their first LMGTE Am pole of 2014 in a time of 1:59.589.

The GT championship-leading No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander set the fastest GTE lap of the weekend so far (1:58.122), but a minor error on the final lap meant that the average of the two best laps of the two drivers put them 0.27seconds behind pole.

Third in the class was the sister AF Corse car, the No.71 of Davide Rigon and James Calado, which recorded an average lap time of 1:59.226, followed by the No.99 Aston Martin of MacDowall and Rees.

The two Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSRs appeared to struggle in qualifying and they finished in fifth and sixth in class, a less than favorable result for Championship contender Frédéric Makowiecki in the No.92.

Less than a second separated the top eight cars across the two classes, and the two Aston Martin Racing entries were once again a class act in LMGTE Am. Nicki Thiim set the pace for the No.95 Vantage V8 with two quick laps which put him firmly among the fastest cars in the session, and this was then ably backed up by Kristian Poulsen. Aston Martin Racing finished 1-2 as Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard qualified less than two tenths of a second behind their teammates.

A fast-lapping Alessandro Pier Guidi and American Jeff Segal combined to put the No.61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 in third place, but their Am teammates in the No.81, Andrea Bertolini and Michele Rugolo fared less well. A brake problem on the Ferrari meant that newly crowned ELMS LMGTE Champion Bertolini only completed two laps in qualifying and Rugolo did not drive at all. The team elected to sit out the session to fix the problem and save the tires for tomorrow’s race.

Qualifying results

11/13/14

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