Brendon Hartley took pole for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s season finale, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, with a late lap of 1:46.800 in the #8 Toyota GR010.
Paul di Resta initially held provisional pole for the #93 Peugeot 9X8 squad, but Hartley pipped the Scot to the post, by 0.810.
Crucially, this gives the #8 Toyota crew an extra point in their championship battle against the #36 Alpine of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre. Vaxiviere qualified that car fifth, a second and half off Hartley.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway was third, followed by Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot.
Over in LMP2, #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca 07-Gibson’s Norman Nato put in a storming late lap of 1:50.330 in the dying seconds to take pole off Will Stevens in the #38 Jota Oreca 07-Gibson, by 0.137 of a second.
Third in class was Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson.
Gianmaria Bruni, meanwhile, took the final ever class pole for GTE-Pro, setting a 1:56.143 in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Antonio Fuoco took second in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, 0.276 off Bruni.
The two title contenders were third and fourth, with #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19’s Michael Christensen third and Alessandro Pier Guidi, in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, fourth. However, Pier Guidi spun on his final timed lap, leaving him unable to improve.
Nick Tandy rounded out the class in fifth in the #63 Corvette C8.R.
Finally, in GTE-Am, Sarah Bovy continued a strong run of form for the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, setting a 1:59.186 to take hers and the team’s second WEC pole. Ben Keating, driving the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR, couldn’t quite match Bovy, with the Amnerican over half a second off. Christian Reid was third in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The race starts tomorrow, Saturday 12th November, at 14:00 local time or 11:00 GMT.
