Bahrain 8h WEC: Kobayashi puts #7 Toyota on pole for decider

The point that comes with pole means that Kobayashi and co-drivers Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez only have to finish Saturday's Bahrain 8 Hours to retain their championship.

Third place in the three-race Hypercar field will be enough to give them the title even if teammates Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima win the race aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Kobayashi posted a 1m46.250s on his first run, which was more than six tenths up on Hartley's 1m48.895s.

Both Toyota drivers went out for second runs: Kobayashi didn't set a representative time, while the three tenths Hartley found to get down to a 1m46.540s wasn't enough to wrest the pole.

The Alpine A480-Gibson ended up 0.775s off the pace, closer than in qualifying for the first race of the Bahrain double-header, courtesy of a 1m47.025s from Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Filipe Albuquerque snatched LMP2 pole position right at the end of the 10-minute prototype session. The Portuguese found seven tenths on a second set of tyres aboard the United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson.

His 1m49.525s was enough to beat the 1m49.819s from Norman Nato, who did not improve on a second run in the TDS-run Realteam Oreca.

Antonio Felix da Costa took third place in the first of the JOTA Oreca, his 1m49.910s coming on the second flying lap of his solo run.

Giedo van der Garde was fourth, and second in the Pro/Am sub-class behind Nato, aboard the Racing Team Nederland Oreca run by TDS with a 1m50.149s on his second run.

The WRT entry that took P2 honours in the six-hour Bahrain race last weekend was only seventh in Ferdinand Habsburg's hands.

Porsche driver Kevin Estre took his fifth GTE Pro pole of the season despite a strong challenge from Ferrari and losing his first lap time to a track limits violation.

The Frenchman's 1m56.041s, slightly quicker than his deleted lap, in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 gave him a margin of less than two tenths over James Calado in the fastest of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTEs, which have received a Balance of Performance boost for this race.

Pole for the Porsche means that Estre and full-season teammate Neel Jani have drawn level on points with Ferrari pairing Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Estre and Jani are joined for this weekend's eight-hour race by Michael Christensen, who drove with them at the Portimao and Le Mans 24 Hours rounds.

Calado's 1m56.201s was four tenths up on third-placed Gianmaria Bruni's Porsche. The Italian lost his first two lap times as a result of going off track and posted his legitimate time of 1m56.541s after the chequered flag had fallen.

Daniel Serra brought up the rear of the GTE Pro pack in the second Ferrari with a time of 1m56.603s.

Ferrari came out on top in GTE Am after its cars received a similar power increase to the Pro cars under the latest BoP.

Roberto Lacorte took the top spot with a 1m58.712s aboard the AF Corse-run Cetilar Racing entry by just four hundredths from Francois Perrodo in the championship-leading AF car.

The WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more information. 

Qualifying results (Hypercar and LMP2):

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'46.250
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'46.540	0.290
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'47.025	0.775
4	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.525	3.275
5	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.819	3.569
6	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.910	3.660
7	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.149	3.899
8	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.372	4.122
9	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.744	4.494
10	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.063	4.813
11	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.134	4.884
12	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.145	4.895
13	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.187	4.937
14	44	Miro Konopka Olli Caldwell Nelson Panciatici	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.424	5.174
View full results

Qualifying results (GTE Pro and Am):

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'56.041
2	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.201	0.160
3	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'56.541	0.500
4	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.603	0.562
5	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.712	2.671
6	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.759	2.718
7	85	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Katherine Legge	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.958	2.917
8	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'58.989	2.948
9	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.087	3.046
10	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.096	3.055
11	88	Khaled Al Qubaisi Axcil Jefferies Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.359	3.318
12	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.492	3.451
13	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.936	3.895
14	57	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.301	4.260
15	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.364	4.323
16	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'01.282	5.241
17	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.941	5.900
View full results