Toyota Gazoo Racing lock up front row for FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

Toyota Gazoo Racing lock up front row for FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

• #8 crew of Buemi-Nakajima-Hartley pip Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates in #7 Hypercar by 0.398 seconds
• JOTA’s Gelael-Vandoorne-Blomqvist to start first amongst LMP2 class runners
• Porsche, Ferrari share the spoils in LMGTE classes, with Estre-Jani leading Pro and Mastronardi-Piccini-Cressoni in front of Am
• Tickets for Saturday’s six-hour endurance spectacle available online and at the gate

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) will on Saturday (October 30) host this year’s FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, and Toyota Gazoo Racing today secured a front-row lockout for the endurance racing spectacle.

The Japanese manufacturers’ #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi-Kazuki Nakajima-Brendon Hartley will start from pole after topping the qualifying timesheet this afternoon at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

They had a best lap time of one minute 47.049 seconds in their GR010 Hybrid Hypercar, beating out teammates Kamui Kobayashi-Mike Conway-Jose Maria Lopez in their #7 challenger by just 0.398 seconds.

The 6 Hours of Bahrain is scheduled for an 11am start Saturday morning, with the chequered flag scheduled to come down near sunset at 5pm. The podium ceremony will follow right after.

The race marks the fifth and penultimate round of the 2021 WEC season.

Set to start behind the leading pair in the Hypercar category will be Alpine Elf Matmut’s Andre Negrao-Nicolas Lapierre-Matthieu Vaxiviere in their #36 Alpine A480-Gibson. They had their fastest qualifying lap of 1:48.003.

In the WEC’s other race categories, JOTA’s Sean Gelael-Stoffel Vandoorne-Tom Blomqvist will head the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) 2 class in their #28 Oreca 07-Gibson. They had a fastest lap of 1:49.885 for pole in class.

United Autosports USA’s #22 crew of Felipe Albuquerque-Philip Hanson-Fabio Scherer will start second in their category while JOTA’s Antonio Felix Da Costa-Roberto Gonzalez-Anthony Davidson in the #38 car are third.

Meanwhile, Porsche and Ferrari shared the spoils in the two Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) categories.

After leading all three practices this weekend, the Porsche GT Team pairing of Kevin Estre-Neel Jani steered their #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 to first in class with a best qualifying lap time of 1:56.144.

Teammates Gianmaria Bruni-Richard Lietz followed in the #91 car, while the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of AF Corse’s Miguel Molina-Daniel Serra will start third amongst the LMGTE Pro runners.

In the LMGTE Am category, the Iron Lynx trio of Rino Mastronardi-Andrea Piccini-Matteo Cressoni in their #60 488 GTE EVO took the leading position. They had a best lap time of 1:58.687.

Paul Dalla Lana-Augusto Farfus-Marcos Gomes of Aston Martin Racing qualified second in class in their #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR, while third are Team Project 1’s Egidio Perfetti-Matteo Cairoli-Riccardo Pera in their #56 911 RSR-19.

Tickets at most affordable prices available online and at the gate

Tickets for Saturday can be purchased online or at the gate. They cost just BD5 for adults (BD8 for both WEC event weekends) and BD2.5 for children aged three to 12 years old (BD4 for both events). Kids under three are free, whilst there are also further discounts available for students, those with special needs and senior citizens.