Rebellion beats Ginetta to WEC Bahrain pole, Toyota third and fourth

Bruno Senna and Norman Nato claimed the top spot aboard the solo Rebellion-Gibson R-13 by just over a tenth from the best of the works Ginetta-AER G60-LT-P1s qualified by Charlie Robertson and Ben Hanley.

Senna led the way after the opening runs with a 1m42.396s, before Nato lapped in 1m43.562s to yield a 1m42.979s average for the car that won last time out in the WEC in Shanghai.

Robertson was only fourth after the first runs with a 1m43.559s before Hanley's 1m42.668s jumped them ahead of the two Toyotas with a 1m43.123s average.

Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima took third in the #8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID with a 1m43.497s average, which was three tenths better than Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez's 1m43.842s in the sister car.

The second Ginetta, qualified by Mike Simpson and Guy Smith, took fifth nearly a second down on the Rebellion.

The #7 and #8 Toyotas are running 2.51s and 2.72s of success handicaps respectively, while the Rebellion is penalised by 1.36s.

The #5 Ginetta is carrying a 0.24s penalty.

Paul di Resta and Phil Hanson claimed LMP2 pole for the United Autosports squad.

Di Resta set the fastest P2 time with a 1m44.869s, which Hanson followed with a 1m45.846s aboard their ORECA-Gibson 07.

Their 1m45.356s average put them them nearly three tenths up on the Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA qualified by Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry.

G-Drive Racing claimed third with Job van Uitert and Jean-Eric Vergne on the TDS-run team's first appearance in the WEC this season.

The two factory Porsches were separated by just six hundredths at the top of the GTE Pro times.

Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz claimed the pole with a 1m55.485s average, which compared with the 1m55.545s of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.

Bruni set the fastest time of the session aboard the #91 Porsche 911 RSR with a 1m55.342s, which was nearly two tenths up on Christensen's 1m55.617s.

Estre briefly jumped to the head of the timesheets with a 1m55.473s, but Lietz's 1m55.628s was just enough to put #91 back on top.

Ferrari took third and fourth positions in class, but failed to get within half a second of Porsche. Alessandro Pier Guidi was fourth after the first runs in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE, but James Calado did enough to give them a 1m56.087s average an vault them ahead of the sister car.

Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina were two tenths further back on a 1m56.318s average. The pair of Aston Martins brought up the rear of the GTE Pro.

Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen's 1m56.389s average left them nine tenths off the pace, while Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin were a further tenth back on 1m56.572s.

Ben Keating snatched GTE Am pole after the chequered flag had fallen in the Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR he qualified along with Larry ten Voorde.

Qualifying result