Porsche lock up front row
Porsche Team sealed the front row this evening for the 2015 FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley steering their Porsche 919 Hybird to the leading grid position with a stellar qualifying run at a floodlit Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Bernhard and Hartley edged out Porsche teammates Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas who followed in second place in their Hybrid.
It was the fifth pole in as many races for the overall leaders, who are also number one in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class.
They now look ahead to the ultimate task in the WEC finale, set to take today starting at 3pm. Bernhard and Hartley will be sharing the duties in their car with third driver Mark Webber.
In WEC qualifying, each team must designate two drivers to take part in the session. Each crew must each set at least one timed lap during qualifying. The average of the two best lap times (the best from each driver) will serve as the reference time for establishing the grid.
Bernhard and Hartley managed to clock the best average lap time of one minute 39.736 seconds to secure pole position, while Lieb and Dumas, who feature Neel Jani as their third driver, clocked an average lap of 1:40.100.
Audi Sport Team Joest qualified in row two, with the R18 e-tron Quattro driven by Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer taking third position. Lotterer and Fassler set an average lap of 1:41.303 in yesterday’s qualifying.
Oliver Jarvis, Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi followed in their challenger. Jarvis and Duval clocked an average of 1:41.407 and the Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of TS 040 Hybrids qualified in row three, followed by Rebellion Racing’s duo of R-One – AER cars in row four.
Team Bykolles qualified in ninth position as the last LMP1 entrant.
In the LMP2 class, the Signatech Alpine 450-b Nissan of Paul Loup Chatin, Tom Dilmann and Nelson Panciatici took pole position with a best average lap of 1:49.993.
In the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category, it was the AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Tony Vilander to claim pole. They had an average lap time of 1:58.347 to top their class.
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) division was led by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda in the Aston Martin Vantage V8.
Earlier in the day duringpractice three, Hartley helped Porsche climb to the top of the timesheet with a best lap of 1:40.917.
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