Brendon Hartley seized the advantage in the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title battle with a superb pole position for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing at the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Brendon’s stunning lap of 1min 46.800secs took pole by a substantial margin, 0.810secs, to earn a point, which could prove crucial in the battle for the drivers’ World Championship.
The #8 GR010 HYBRID crew of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon and Ryo Hirakawa arrived in Bahrain tied on points with the #36 Alpine drivers, but now hold a slim advantage ahead of Saturday’s race.
Mike Conway qualified the #7 he shares with Kamui Kobayashi and José María López in third, 0.938secs behind. The two GR010 HYBRIDs were split by the second-placed #93 Peugeot.
The 10-minute qualifying took place under floodlights on a warm Bahrain evening and Mike left the garage early to wait at the exit of the pit lane, ensuring he was one of the first cars on track when the green flags waved. Brendon bided his time in the garage and his tyres were fitted directly before he headed out.
That proved significant as Mike’s tyres hit optimum operating temperature only on his second flying lap, when he set his best time of the session.
Brendon immediately set the pace on his first timed lap, exploiting the grip from his hot, fresh Michelin rubber to comfortably go fastest, where he stayed until the chequered flag to earn the team’s third pole of 2022.
Competition in Hypercar had been extremely close all week but Brendon’s qualifying lap was in a class of its own. His 0.810secs advantage over the #93 Peugeot was bigger than the gap between all other Hypercars, with second to fifth places separated by just 0.733secs.
The destination of both titles will be decided over eight hours on Saturday, starting at 2pm local time (midday CET), when TOYOTA GAZOO Racing aims for its fourth win of the season to secure its fourth consecutive World Championship double in WEC.
8 Hours of Bahrain – Qualifying
1st #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 1min 46.800secs
2nd #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies (Di Resta/Jensen/Vergne) +0.810secs
3rd #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.938secs
4th #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies (Duval/Menezes/Müller) +1.534secs
5th #36 Alpine Elf Team (Negrao/Lapierre/Vaxiviere) +1.543secs
6th #41 Realteam by WRT (Andrade/Habsburg/Nato) +3.530secs
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