Kamui Kobayashi claimed Toyota Gazoo Racing’s first FIA WEC pole position in a year at the Bahrain International Circuit this afternoon, as the Japanese marque scored a front-row lockout for the season finale.
Kobayashi in the #7 GR010 took an extra lap than most in the 10-minute Hyperpole session to warm up his tyres, and delivered on his one and only flying lap with a 1:46.826.
This eclipsed teammate Brendan Hartley, who pushed on his first timed lap and set a 1:46.977, by 0.151 seconds.
“I think the team did a great job,” said Kobayashi post-Hyperpole, as Toyota prevented itself from going a full season without a pole position for the first time since 2016.
“We’ve had a tough season so far, and this is really the last race for us with this car. Obviously, it has been used for a long time, and in its last race we got pole position, which is very proud.”
Peugeot TotalEnergies locked out the second row of the grid, with Malthe Jakobsen in the #94 9X8 besting the sister #93 entry of Jean-Éric Vergne.
Alex Lynn was fifth in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R, with Marco Sørensen sixth in the #009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie. It was a disappointing Hyperpole session for the British marque, which couldn’t match its pace from the opening part of qualifying, where Ross Gunn headed a Valkyrie 1-2 aboard the #007 entry.
Antonio Giovinazzi qualified seventh in the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, with the #5 Porsche, #007 Aston Martin and #15 BMW completing the top 10.
The #51 Ferrari was the only 499P to progress to Hyperpole, with both Antonio Fuoco and Robert Kubica coming up less than 0.050 seconds shy of 10th-placed Julien Andlauer in the opening round, and settling for 11th and 12th, respectively.
“It was a decent lap, to be honest, first time for me with four new mediums,” Kubica said. “Yesterday we didn’t do quali sim, so for sure there was a bit more, but overall I would say this is our position on one push lap.”
Elsewhere, it was a disappointing session for Alpine Endurance Team, as neither of its A424s advanced to Hyperpole.
Kévin Estre, meanwhile, was 18th aboard the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 after another scrappy qualifying session. The Frenchman lost his first flying lap to a huge lock-up into Turn 1, whilst his final flyer was compromised by a misjudged attempt to slipstream the sister #5 Porsche into the final corner. The defending champions in the #6 have a lot of work to do tomorrow to turn things around.
And in LMGT3, Finn Gehrsitz scored his second career FIA WEC pole position aboard the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3.
The German went fastest with a 2:01.862 on his first flying lap of Hyperpole, and then subsequently improved with a 2:01.661 that no one else could challenge.
“It was an incredible lap,” Gehrsitz said post-session. “It’s the final Hyperpole of the season, so for sure we wanted to do well and close the season really good.
“We tried to work hard, really hard, over the weekend, and especially at this track, everything needs to fit perfectly. Every corner, the car set up, the driver, everything needs to fit, and now it paid off.”
Behind Gehrsitz, Iron Lynx gave the Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 its best showing in FIA WEC competition to date, with both of the Italian team’s cars qualifying inside the top three. Lorcan Hanafin was second fastest in the #60 Mercedes-AMG, 0.326 seconds off pole, with Lin Hodenius 0.030 seconds behind his teammate in the #61 entry.
Clemens Schmid qualified fourth in the #87 Lexus, ahead of Timur Boguslavskiy’s #31 The Bend Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo, and the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 of Zacharie Robichon.
The best of the title contenders was the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3, which Simon Mann qualified in eighth, as the best of the non-front-engined machines.
The Ferrari was the only championship challenger to progress to Hyperpole, as both TF Sport and Manthey struggled.
Tom van Rompuy was 14th aboard the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, as a setup tweak, and the decision to join the session late did not pay off.
“We tried something which we thought also would help us during the race, especially when it got a bit fresher,” the Belgian explained. “But obviously, it wasn’t that good of a choice. Maybe for the race it will be, but on the one lap, we seemed to be missing something.”
The championship-leading #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) LMGT3 was even further back, as Ryan Hardwick qualified a lowly 17th in a Porsche last-row lockout.
It was a hectic Qualifying for the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Flohr, which pitted at the end of its out lap and was wheeled into the garage where the 296 LMGT3’s engine cover was removed to repair the alternator belt. After a rapid fix, Flohr rejoined the session with enough time to set two flying laps, and put the car 16th on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
The 2025 FIA WEC season concludes with tomorrow’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, which begins at 14:00 AST.
