Toyota Gazoo Racing on pole for Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

Toyota Gazoo Racing on pole for Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at BIC

• #8 crew of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa lead Toyota one-two on starting grid
• United Autosports’ #23 car in front at start for LMP2 class, Iron Dames secure pole in LMGTE Am category
• WEC’s season-ending eight-hour endurance spectacle scheduled to flag off at 2pm on Saturday
• Dutchman Robert De Haan wins opening race of 2023/2024 Porsche Carrera Cup ME season

Toyota Gazoo Racing powered to pole position today evening for this year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Brendon Hartley, in the cockpit of Toyota’s #8 GR010 Hybrid, steered his crew to the leading grid place with a sensational qualifying run held under the bright lights at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

Hartley will be sharing driving duties with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa in Saturday’s eight-hour main event, which marks the final round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Along with their overall pole, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #8 contender is also at the front in the WEC’s Hypercar category.

Tom Blomqvist put the #23 United Autosports crew in pole in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, and Sarah Bovy secured the leading grid position for #85 Iron Dames team in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE Am) category.

Saturday’s highly anticipated WEC curtain-closer is scheduled to flag off at 2pm. It will be the 12th time the WEC will be racing in Sakhir, and the fifth time the event is taking place in its current eight-hour format.

In this evening’s qualifying, held in cool and dry conditions, Hartley clocked a best lap time of one minute 46.564 seconds to top the timesheet. He set the only time of the session that dipped under 1:47.000.

The Hartley-Buemi-Hirakawa triumvirate will be joined on the front row by Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.

Kobayashi qualified second-fastest today, going 0.489s behind Hartley in their #7 GR010 Hybrid. Alex Lynn secured third on the grid for Cadillac Racing, setting a best lap 0.701s off the leading pace in his #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which he shares with Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook.

All 12 Hypercars will start at the head of the stacked 36-car field in the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Joining Cadillac in row two is Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #6 crew in their Porsche 963 Hybrid. The pair of Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps will begin the race in fifth and sixth, while Porsche Penske’s #5 crew are seventh, with Proton Competition’s #99 Porsche 963 in eighth. The Hypercar grid is completed by the #38 Hertz Team JOTA in ninth, the two Peugeot TotalEnergies cars in 10th and 11th and the #4 challenger of Floyd Vanwall Racing Team.

In the LMP2 class, Blomqvist claimed pole for United Autosports with a best lap of 1:52.290. He had the qualifying duties in the team’s Oreca 07-Gibson, which he shares with Joshua Pierson and Oliver Jarvis.

Charles Milesi in Alpine Elf Team’s #36 car qualified in second 0.271s off Blomqvist’s pace, while Robin Frijns put Team WRT third in class with a best lap 0.608s behind in their #31 Oreca 07-Gibson.