07/11/2025

Toyota takes first 2025 pole with 1-2 in qualifying

Toyota took its first pole position of the 2025 World Endurance Championship in Bahrain as Kamui Kobayashi led home a qualifying 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer.

Kobayashi claimed the top spot aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar in the 10-minute Hyperpole session on Friday evening for the fastest 10 cars in first qualifying with a best lap of 1m46.826s.

That shaded the 1m46.977s set by Brendon Hartley, who took Toyota’s most recent pole at this race last year, in the sister #8 entry.

The two Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs blocked out the second row of the grid for the Saturday’s Bahrain 8 Hours WEC finale.

Malthe Jakobsen posted a 1m47.166s in the #94 entry to beat team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne’s 1m47.208s in the #93 car.

Alex Lynn took fifth with a 1m47.543s in the Jota Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh in which he, Will Stevens and Norman Nato retain a mathematical chance of taking the 2025 WEC Hypercar title.

Marco Sorensen claimed sixth in the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH run by The Heart of Racing team with a 1m47.624s.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi & #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

Antonio Giovinazzi managed seventh position in the factory AF Corse Ferrari 499P LMH in which he leads the championship with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Julien Andlauer ended up eighth in the best of the Penske-run Porsche 963 LMDhs, while Ross Gunn and Dries Vanthoor filled out the top 10 in the #007 Aston and the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMH.

Only two of the four crews in with a chance of taking the Hypercar drivers’ title made it into Hyperpole from the opening 12-minute qualifying period.

The #83 Ferrari run on a satellite basis by AF Corse, which lies second in the points, ended up 12th in Robert Kubica’s hands.

The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, which is third in the standings, finished 18th and last in Hypercar after Kevin Estre locked up on his opening push lap.

Alpine, winner last time out in the WEC at Fuji in September, also failed to progress into the second round of qualifying with either of its pair of A424 LMHs. Jules Gounon and Charles Milesi ended up 13th and 15th respectively.

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Pascal Wherlein

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

Lexus and the Auto Sport Promotion team took their second LMGT3 pole of the season, Finn Gehrsitz following up on his top spot in qualifying at Spa in May.

Gehrsitz posted two laps good enough for the pole, shaving a couple of tenths from his best lap to get down to a 2m01.661s aboard the #78 Lexus RC F GT3 in Hyperpole.

That gave him a margin of three tenths over Lorcan Hanafin in the best of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3s in second position.

The Briton’s time of 2m01.987s shaded third-placed Lin Hodenius in the Iron Lynx sister car by three hundredths.

The #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 was the only one of the three cars whose crews are in contention for the drivers’ title to make it through into Hyperpole.

Simon Mann ended up eighth the after Francois Heriau took the same position in first qualifying for the bronze-rated driver in each crew.

Ryan Hardwick in the points-leading Manthey Porsche 911 GT3-R ended up 17th of the 18 LMGT3 cars, while Tom van Rompuy took 14th in the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that lies in second place in the championship.

The Bahrain 8 Hours kicks off at 14:00 local time on Saturday.