Swiss driver Neel Jani and Frenchman Romain Dumas have again proved Porsche’s sizzling pace to beat the benchmark Toyota team to pole position for Round 7 of the World Endurance Championship in Bahrain.
Jani and Dumas saw the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid achieve a two-lap average qualifying time of 1:43.145s to clinch the prime starting spot for the 6 Hours of Bahrain at the Sakhir International Circuit.
Porsche have worked hard on extending its tyre life which has previously left it short in the six hour races.
“The car felt good in qualifying, but I think we are also well prepared for the race,” Jani said.
“Let’s see if we can put a bit more pressure on our competitors this time.
“We are fighting for a podium finish – if we could squeeze out a bit more, it would be even nicer.
“We have really put a lot of effort into tyre management to use them better and for longer in the races.”
Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi, who were the class of the field to win last start in Shanghai, will start alongside the Porsche after falling .26s short of the pole.
Mark Webber sat out qualifying duties but saw the #20 Porsche qualify third fastest with Timo Bernhard and Kiwi Brendon Hartley falling over a second off the average set by their team-mates.
Hartley and Bernhard both encountered problems during the qualifying run.
“For car #20 it wasn’t the smoothest qualifying with Timo having a problem on his first lap, and me making a mistake on my first lap,” Hartley said.
“I had a massive front locking in turn one. There was no time left to go back to the pits and I did my best. I’m very happy it was all good enough for P3.”
The other Toyota TS 040 Hybrid which was driven by Alex Wurz and 2014 IndyCar race winner Mike Conway claimed fourth.
Audi appears to be in for a difficult race with the sole R18 etron quattro of Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer in fifth.
The sister #1 Audi missed qualifying and is being rebuilt after suffering damage in the third practice session.
Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla are the leading LMP2 in the G-Drive Ligier Nissan while Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner are on pole in GTE Pro in the Aston Martin Vantage.
Aston Martin also steamed to the fastest in GTE Am through Nicki Thiim and Kristian Poulsen.
The race is the penultimate round of the FIA WEC.
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