TOYOTA Racing locked out the front row yesterday for the season-ending Six Hours of Bahrain, which takes place today at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Capturing pole position was the number 7 TS030 Hybrid of Alexander Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima.
They claimed the leading grid position after registering an average lap time of one minute 42.449 seconds during yesterday’s hotly contested qualifying session.
The Japanese outfit’s second car was nearly just as quick. Driven by Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin, the number 8 Hybrid qualified in second place after clocking an average lap of 1:42.781.
“I am very happy with our performance in qualifying,” Wurz said. “After the morning session, I thought it would be tough to get pole after seeing the lap times of our competitor, but we played our cards very well and in the end we leave with a smile.”
Added teammate Buemi: “The target was first and second for the team, and we are first and second.
“I would prefer the number 8 to be first, but the race is still to come.”
Following yesterday’s results, Toyota claimed their second successive pole as they are looking to end their debut full season in the FIA World Endurance Championship on a high.
Set to start behind the Toyota pair are the two R18 e-tron quattro challengers of already crowned Manufacturers’ world champions Audi.
The number 1 car of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler had an average best lap of 1:42.976, putting them in third on the grid.
Right beside them will be the Audi number 2 of recently crowned Drivers’ world champions Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Allan McNish. They registered an average time of 1:43.145.
Behind the leading quartet and completing the LMP1 competitors was the Lola B12/60 Couple of Rebellion Racing, driven by Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Nicolas Prost.
They had an average lap of 1:46.728 to take fifth overall on the grid.
Meanwhile, leading the LMP2 class was the Pecom Racing Oreca 03-Nissan of Nicolas Minassian and Pierre Kaffer. They had an average lap time of 1:50.941.
Starting behind them in the same category will be the G-Drive Racing Oreca 03-Nissan (1:51.003) of John Martin and Mike Conway; while OAK Racing’s Morgan-Nissan (1:51.718) of Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle will be in third.
In the LMGTE Pro class, Porsche AG Team Manthey will start both their cars in the front.
The 911 RSR of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz qualified yesterday with an average lap time of 1:58.833 to claim pole in their class, while the car of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet followed with an average best time of 1:58.960.
Leading the LMGTE Am challengers will be the Aston Martin trio of Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Theim. They steered their Vantage V8 to an average lap of 2:00.303.
Qualifying behind them were 8 Star Motorsports’ Vicente Potolicchio and Rui Aguas. In a Ferrari F458 Italia, they had a time of 2:00.337.
The 28 WEC cars will be back in action for the Six Hours of Bahrain today, which is scheduled to start at 3pm. The race is set to be a unique spectacle for Bahrain’s motorsport fans, starting in the daylight before moving into darkness.