Brendon Hartley took pole for Toyota for tomorrow’s FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Portimao, as the Japanese team took a front row lockout in a dominant display.
Hartley set a 1:30.171, breaking the qualifying lap record in the #8 Toyota GR010, and almost three tenths faster than his teammate, and Toyota team principal, Kamui Kobayashi in the sister #7 Toyota.
The fastest non-Toyota was Nicklas Nielsen’s #50 Ferrari 499P, but the Dane was almost one and a half seconds adrift of Hartley. Teammate James Calado was fourth in the #51 Ferrari.
Fifth was the fastest Porsche, Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche 963, more than two seconds off the Toyota. The #94 Peugeot 9X8 of Nico Muller was sixth, with the #5 Porsche 963 of Fred Makowiecki seventh.
Richard Westbrook took eighth in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, with Paul di Resta’s #93 Peugeot ninth, then the non-hybrid #708 Glickenhaus of Romain Dumas and the #4 Vanwall 680 of Tom Dillmann rounding out the class in 11th, over three and a half seconds off Hartley’s pole time.
Hartley was quickest all session, setting that single lap early on then pitting when it became clear he couldn’t better it. Kobayashi tried to go faster but couldn’t, and soon after the Japanese manufacturer’s competitors realised Toyota were on another level pace wise and also pitted.
Mirko Bortolotti took pole LMP2 by a single thousandth of a second in the #63 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson — but they may lose it due to an operational infringement.
The car was waiting for the session to start in the ‘fast lane’ of the pitlane, but the car had issues. The Prema mechanics pulled the rear bodywork of the car off, but then pushed the car back to the Prema pitbox and got the car started.
It’s not clear whether this — working on the car in the fast lane — will be seen as breaking the rules by the WEC officials.
In second was Gabriel Aubry, 0.001 behind Bortolotti in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07-Gibson. The Frenchman held provisional pole for much of the session, with a particularly impressive final sector which appeared unbeatable — until Bortolotti pipped him overall by that single thousandth.
In third was Phil Hanson in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson.
In GTE-Am, Ben Keating took pole in the #33 Corvette C8.R, with a magnificent lap, a 1:41.362 set with a minute to go in the session.
The American built the tyre temperature up throughout the session, but was quick initially as well, two seconds ahead of everyone else in the opening laps.
Sarah Bovy, despite her best efforts, couldn’t best Keating’s lap. She did top the session with three minutes to go, then improved by just under two hundredths, but Keating bettered her lap by over two tenths when it came to the pointy end of the session.
In third was Diego Alessi in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The Italian also topped the timesheets mid way through the session, but in the end was 0.049 off Bovy.
This, then, put three manufacturers in the top three positions. Fourth was Thomas Flohr in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, while the first of the Aston Martins was Ahmad Al Harthy in the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
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