The No.14 Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1-H car took a second consecutive pole position in Bahrain this evening. Neel Jani and Romain Dumas split their qualifying duties in the 25-minutes session to combine an overall four lap average time of 1m43.145s, some 0.264s clear of title leaders Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson in the No.8 Toyota Racing TS 040 Hybrid.
Jani, who set a clear fastest time in FP2 and FP3 at the Bahrain International Circuit started the early run in the Porsche 919 Hybrid rapidly, peaking with a 1m41.897 to set the best ever LMP1 lap at Bahrain International Circuit. Romain Dumas then took over the cockpit after 11 minutes of the session and contributed a succession of quick laps to lower the average time and ultimately seal the overall pole position and the extra point.
The Porsche Team is confident that some small but significant mechanical changes to the 919 Hybrid since Shanghai will contribute a sustained challenge to Toyota Racing in the race tomorrow, as they aim to score their first race victory in their return to the premier class of endurance racing.
Davidson and Buemi, minds fixed firmly on their 2014 World Endurance Championship title quest, will line up alongside the #8 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid on the rolling front-row tomorrow afternoon. The pair need to finish fifth or higher in the LMP1-H class to seal the 2014 FIA WEC crown.
The first row of the grid is mirrored by the second row, as the No.20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard head the No.7 Toyota Racing entry of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.
The #1 Audi driven by Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler in qualifying today will start in fifth place on the starting grid. As the closest challengers to Davidson and Buemi for the FIA World Endurance Championship for Drivers’, the #2 Audi crew have a mountain to climb if they are to pull off an unlikely late title challenge.
The other Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas Di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval sat out the qualifying session after their chassis was being replaced due to an issue with the floor mountings of the car. The newly built-up Audi R18 e-tron Quattro will be able to start from the rear of the LMP1 grid after being re-scrutineered by the FIA Technical Delegate once the work is completed.
In the LMP1-L class, the in-house Rebellion Racing qualifying battle was won by the #12 Rebellion R-One Toyota, as Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost bettered the sister #13 Rebellion R-One driven by Fabio Leimer and Dominik Kraihamer by six-tenths of a second.
The LMP2 class again fell to G-Drive Racing as they claimed their sixth pole of the season. First, Roman Rusinov and then Olivier Pla again demonstrated the pace of the Ligier JS P2 coupe to lead their title rivals - #27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan, which was driven as usual in qualifying by Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani. The Russians second Michelin shod Oreca-Nissan placed third with Kiril Ladygin and Viktor Shaitar piloting the red, white and blue car to an average four-lap time just 0.080s slower than their sister car.
CLICK HERE for the results from Qualifying
QUALIFYING FACTS
