WEC Portimao: Hartley beats Kobayashi for pole in Toyota 1-2

Brendon Hartley led a qualifying 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer, outpacing team-mate and team principal Kamui Kobayashi by nearly three tenths of a second.

Hartley’s 1m30.171s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar compared with Kobayashi’s 1m30.444s in #7.

Toyota had a clear margin over Ferrari, which took the pole in the Sebring season-opener last month, over the 15-minute Hypercar qualifying session.

Nicklas Nielsen was nearly a second and a half off the pace in third spot aboard the best of the Italian manufacturer’s 499P LMHs.

His 1m31.596s gave him a four-tenth margin over team-mate James Calado’s 1m31.923s in the sister car.

Hartley said: “We put a bit of effort into qualifying this time because we were a little bit annoyed at Sebring.

“I knew the lap was good, but I also knew that I would have Kamui right behind me.

“We’re expecting a big fight tomorrow, especially with the red cars [Ferraris].”

Porsche took fifth position with Kevin Estre aboard the best of its 963 LMDhs. His 1m32.404s was just a tenth quicker than the best of the Peugeot 9X8s in which Nico Muller posted a 1m32.517s.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Frederic Makowiecki took seventh position in the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries just ahead of Richard Westbrook in the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh.

Glickenhaus got the better of Vanwall in the battle of the garagistes at the rear of the 11-car Hypercr field, Romain Dumas outpacing Tom Dillmann by half a second.

Mirko Bortolotti snatched a first LMP2 pole position for the Prema team by just one thousandth of a second.

The factory Lamborghini driver put in a 1m34.303s in the best of the Italian team’s pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s on his final flying lap to knock Vector Sport’s Gabriel Aubry off the top stop.

Bortolotti bounced back from losing an even faster time — a 1m34.284s — on his previous lap to a track limits infraction.

Prema’s pole remains provisional: an investigation was underway after the #63 ORECA was worked on in the fast lane in the pits at the start of the session.

Aubry’s 1m34.304s set early in the session gave him a margin of a tenth over United Autosports driver Phil Hanson, whose late improvement to a 1m34.451s promoted him to third.

Yifei Ye was also a late-improver and jumped to fourth aboard the best of the two Jota ORECAs.

Ben Keating claimed pole position in GTE Am right at the end of the session from regular qualifying sparring partner Sarah Bovy.

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R: Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone, Nicky Catsburg

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Corvette Racing driver found four tenths on his final lap to jump from third to the top of time sheets aboard his Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and deprive Bovy of a third consecutive class pole for the Iron Dames team.

Keating’s final lap of 1m41.362s was two tenths up on Bovy’s 1m41.579s at the wheel of the Iron Lynx-run Porsche 911 RSR.

Diego Alessi claimed third with a 1m41.628s in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.

The Portimao 6 Hours, round two of the 2023 WEC, starts at 12:00 local time on Sunday.

Full WEC Portimao Hypercar Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Drivers		Car	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	1'30.171
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	1'30.444	0.273
3	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen		Ferrari 499P	1'31.596	1.425
4	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi		Ferrari 499P	1'31.923	1.752
5	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor		Porsche 963	1'32.404	2.233
6	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller		Peugeot 9X8	1'32.517	2.346
7	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki		Porsche 963	1'32.560	2.389
8	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook		Cadillac V-Series.R	1'32.582	2.411
9	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne		Peugeot 9X8	1'32.703	2.532
10	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla		Glickenhaus 007	1'33.343	3.172
11	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve		Vanwall Vandervell 680	1'33.836	3.665
View full results

Full WEC Portimao LMP2 Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Avg Time	Gap
1	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	1'34.303
2	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	1'34.304	0.001
3	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	1'34.451	0.148
4	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Antonio Felix da Costa	Oreca 07	1'34.493	0.190
5	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	1'34.586	0.283
6	23	Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	1'34.590	0.287
7	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	1'34.618	0.315
8	9	Filip Ugran Juan Manuel Correa Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	1'34.770	0.467
9	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	1'34.776	0.473
10	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	1'34.996	0.693
11	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	1'35.238	0.935
12	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	1'35.361	1.058
View full results

Full WEC Portimao GTE Am Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Avg Time	Gap
1	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	1'41.362
2	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'41.579	0.217
3	21	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'41.628	0.266
4	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'41.899	0.537
5	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'41.904	0.542
6	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'41.934	0.572
7	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'42.014	0.652
8	56	Miguel Pedro Guilherme Moura Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.024	0.662
9	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.105	0.743
10	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.198	0.836
11	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'43.035	1.673
12	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'43.207	1.845
13	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'43.273	1.911
14	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'43.528	2.166
View full results