Toyota took its first pole place of the 2025 World Endurance Championship in Bahrain as Kamui Kobayashi led dwelling a qualifying 1-2 for the Japanese producer.
Kobayashi claimed the highest spot aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar within the 10-minute Hyperpole session on Friday night for the quickest 10 vehicles in first qualifying with a finest lap of 1m46.826s.
That shaded the 1m46.977s set by Brendon Hartley, who took Toyota’s most up-to-date pole at this race final yr, within the sister #8 entry.
The 2 Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs blocked out the second row of the grid for the Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours WEC finale.
Malthe Jakobsen posted a 1m47.166s within the #94 entry to beat team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne’s 1m47.208s within the #93 automobile.
Alex Lynn took fifth with a 1m47.543s within the Jota Cadillac V-Collection.R LMDh by which he, Will Stevens and Norman Nato retain a mathematical likelihood of taking the 2025 WEC Hypercar title.
Marco Sorensen claimed sixth within the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH run by The Coronary heart of Racing group with a 1m47.624s.
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi & #38 Cadillac Hertz Workforce Jota Cadillac V-Collection.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Community
Antonio Giovinazzi managed seventh place within the manufacturing unit AF Corse Ferrari 499P LMH by which he leads the championship with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Julien Andlauer ended up eighth in the very best of the Penske-run Porsche 963 LMDhs, whereas Ross Gunn and Dries Vanthoor crammed out the highest 10 within the #007 Aston and the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMH.
Solely two of the 4 crews in with an opportunity of taking the Hypercar drivers’ title made it into Hyperpole from the opening 12-minute qualifying interval.
The #83 Ferrari run on a satellite tv for pc foundation by AF Corse, which lies second within the factors, ended up twelfth in Robert Kubica’s fingers.
The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, which is third within the standings, completed 18th and final in Hypercar after Kevin Estre locked up on his opening push lap.
Alpine, winner final day trip within the WEC at Fuji in September, additionally did not progress into the second spherical of qualifying with both of its pair of A424 LMHs. Jules Gounon and Charles Milesi ended up thirteenth and fifteenth respectively.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Pascal Wherlein
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Community
Lexus and the Auto Sport Promotion group took their second LMGT3 pole of the season, Finn Gehrsitz following up on his high spot in qualifying at Spa in Could.
Gehrsitz posted two laps ok for the pole, shaving a few tenths from his finest lap to get right down to a 2m01.661s aboard the #78 Lexus RC F GT3 in Hyperpole.
That gave him a margin of three tenths over Lorcan Hanafin in the very best of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3s in second place.
The Briton’s time of 2m01.987s shaded third-placed Lin Hodenius within the Iron Lynx sister automobile by three hundredths.
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 was the one one of many three vehicles whose crews are in rivalry for the drivers’ title to make it via into Hyperpole.
Simon Mann ended up eighth the after Francois Heriau took the identical place in first qualifying for the bronze-rated driver in every crew.
Ryan Hardwick within the points-leading Manthey Porsche 911 GT3-R ended up seventeenth of the 18 LMGT3 vehicles, whereas Tom van Rompuy took 14th within the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that lies in second place within the championship.
The Bahrain 8 Hours kicks off at 14:00 native time on Saturday.
Learn Additionally:
WEC Bahrain 8 Hours – Qualifying outcomes
1
7
Toyota GR010 – Hybrid
4
182.382
2
8
Toyota GR010 – Hybrid
4
0.151
182.125
3
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94
Peugeot 9X8
5
0.189
181.803
4
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93
Peugeot 9X8
4
0.042
181.732
5
Cadillac Hertz Workforce JOTA HYPERCAR
12
Cadillac V-Collection.R
5
0.335
181.166
6
Aston Martin THOR Workforce HYPERCAR
009
Aston Martin Valkyrie
5
0.081
181.030
7
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51
Ferrari 499P
5
0.102
180.858
8
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5
Porsche 963
5
0.144
180.617
9
Aston Martin THOR Workforce HYPERCAR
007
Aston Martin Valkyrie
5
0.166
180.339
10
BMW M Workforce WRT HYPERCAR
15
BMW M Hybrid V8
6
0.100
180.173
We wish your opinion!
What would you wish to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Workforce
