Brendon Hartley took pole for Toyota for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, with his teammate Nyck de Vries ensuring a front row lock out for Toyota.
It took more than half the session to have representative lap times start coming in, with teams taking it slow on this high-energy, high-degradation track. Many teams scrubbed in a set of tyres for the race, including the two BMWs, who pitted for their qualifying tyres mid-way through.
The two Toyotas were the first to set representative times in qualifying, with Nyck de Vries’ lap of 1:47.498 in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid the eventual fastest time in the session. His teammate Brendon Hartley set a lap exactly two tenths slower, with both McLarens pitting early, maybe to preserve tyres for the race.
A stream of times then came in, demoting Hartley down to fourth when the session ended. At the close of the session, Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari AF Corse crossed the line late to go second, 0.033 slower than de Vries.
Third was BMW’s Robin Frijns, 0.019 between him and Giovinazzi, with just over half a tenth between the top 3.
Out of the session, though, were the two Alpines, the two Peugeots, Cadillac, Lamborghini, the #38 JOTA Porsche, and the satellite #83 Ferrari.
Going into the Hyperpole session, it again took a while for the times to becoming representative.
Toyota’s Hartley put the car on pole, with a 1:46.714. He was three tenths quicker than his teammates dee Vries, locking out the front row for the Japanese-German team. Third went to Giovinazzi, just a few hundredths off de Vries, while #99 Proton’s Neel Jani took fourth, the faster Porsche 963 in the session.
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