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Bahrain WEC: Hartley/Bernhard/Webber Porsche takes pole for decider

Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard completed Porsche's clean sweep of pole positions in the 2015 World Endurance Championship at the Bahrain finale

Hartley was fastest in the first group of drivers aboard the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid with a 1m39.802s and then Bernhard bettered that with a 1m39.670s.

That gave them a two-lap average of 1m39.736s, which put them more than three tenths up on team-mates Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb in the second Porsche.

The point for pole position extends Hartley, Bernhard and Mark Webber's championship lead to 13 points ahead of Saturday's six-hour race.

Hartley said: "Normally we don't put much focus on qualifying, but we put everything into it to get that extra point."

Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer took third place for Audi with a 1m41.303s average aboard their R18 e-tron quattro, a tenth up on the sister car qualified by Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis.

The two Toyota TS040 HYBRIDs filled out positions five and six, with Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima eclipsing Alex Wurz and Stephane Sarrazin by three tenths.

The Signatech Alpine team followed up on its Shanghai LMP2 victory earlier this month with a class pole in Bahrain.

Tom Dillmann and Paul-Loup Chatin set a 1m49.993s average in their ORECA-Nissan 03R to edge out the KCMG ORECA-Nissan 05 of Matt Howson and Nick Tandy by under a tenth.

Tandy's first flying lap briefly put the car on pole before Chatin improved on a second lap to jump back to the top spot.

The championship-leading G-Drive Ligier-Nissan JSP2 was a further tenth back in third with Julien Canal and Sam Bird.

NEWS UPDATE: Track limits penalties shake up LMP2 and GTE Pro

AF Corse Ferrari drivers Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni took the point for pole position in the GTE Pro class.

Vilander had put their 458 Italia third with a 1m58.187s before Bruni's 1m58.508s vaulted them ahead of the Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim and the sister car of Davide Rigon and James Calado.

Bruni and Vilander ended up with a 1m58.347s average, which was just three hundredths ahead of their team-mates and a further three tenths clear of the Danish Aston Martin Racing drivers.

Championship leader Richard Lietz and team-mate Michael Christensen ended up seventh and last aboard their Manthey Porsche 911 RSR, which was not given a new set of tyres between runs.

GTE Am qualifying honours were taken for the fifth time this season by the Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana.

The session had to be red flagged after less than two minutes when the lighting system at the Sakhir circuit briefly failed.

Follow the WEC title decider as it happens with Autosport Race Centre Live from midday UK time on Saturday

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 1m39.736s -
2 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 1m40.100s 0.364s
3 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 1m41.303s 1.567s
4 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 1m41.407s 1.671s
5 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota 1m42.158s 2.422s
6 LMP1 A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 1m42.462s 2.726s
7 LMP1 A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, M.Tuscher Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 1m46.660s 6.924s
8 LMP1 N.Prost, M.Beche Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 1m46.918s 7.182s
9 LMP1 S.Trummer, P.Kaffer Team ByKolles CLM/AER 1m48.281s 8.545s
10 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, T.Dillmann Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 1m49.993s 10.257s
11 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 1m50.102s 10.366s
12 LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Tandy KCMG ORECA/Nissan 1m50.490s 10.754s
13 LMP2 G.Yacaman, P.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 1m50.720s 10.984s
14 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, C.Cumming Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 1m51.302s 11.566s
15 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 1m51.610s 11.874s
16 LMP2 M.Aleshin, N.Minassian, D.Markozov AF Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 1m52.020s 12.284s
17 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Gibson/Nissan 1m52.260s 12.524s
18 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 1m55.472s 15.736s
19 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 1m58.347s 18.611s
20 GTE Pro C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen, N.Thiim Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m58.659s 18.923s
21 GTE Pro A.MacDowall, F.Rees, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m58.777s 19.041s
22 GTE Pro P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 1m58.988s 19.252s
23 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m59.111s 19.375s
24 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 1m59.807s 20.071s
25 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m00.522s 20.786s
26 GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen Larbre Competition Chevrolet 2m00.944s 21.208s
27 GTE Am V.Shaytar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 2m00.988s 21.252s
28 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, M.Cressoni AF Corse Ferrari 2m01.796s 22.060s
29 GTE Am C.Ried, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey Racing - Proton Porsche 2m02.348s 22.612s
30 GTE Am F.Castellacci, R.Goethe, S.Hall Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m03.517s 23.781s
31 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 2m04.574s 24.838s
32 GTE Am M.Mapelli, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche - -


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