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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