Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi claimed Toyota’s 20th ever FIA WEC front-row lockout Saturday.
- Toyota Gazoo takes the team’s 20th FIA WEC front row.
- Prema grabs its LMP2 first ever WEC pole.
- Ben Keating takes the top spot in LMGTA Am.
Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi claimed Toyota’s 20th ever FIA WEC front-row lockout Saturday to ensure they start 1-2 for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Portimao, the second round of the 2023 FIA WEC.
The Kiwi driver scorched to a best lap of 1:30.171 in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to beat his stablemate and boss Kobayashi by 0.273 seconds.
WEC at Portimao Starting Lineup (PDF)
WEC
“That felt good,” Hartley said. “We put a bit more effort into qualifying this time and the car felt amazing over one lap. My lap was very clean and when I crossed the line, I knew it was good, which it had to be with Kamui so close behind. Our crew has done an amazing job so thanks to everyone. We made some good steps since first practice. It hasn’t been straightforward because we haven‘t been to this track for a while, so we had to work hard to get the set-up right and I didn’t expect to have such a gap today. Now we are focusing on the race, and I am expecting a big fight, particularly with Ferrari but Cadillac and Porsche as well. Their race pace looks strong so I am sure it will be close, but we are starting from the front.”
Kamui waited slightly later for his first flying lap and moved into second place. Unlike his teammate, he did not improve on his next lap and settled for completing a one-two on the grid for Sunday’s race.
“We are a bit surprised by the gap to the other Hypercars because we expected qualifying to be much closer, based on the lap times in free practice,” he said. “We worked a bit harder on qualifying set-up this week compared to Sebring because we wanted to get pole position and we will enjoy this feeling, but now we come back to race mode. I think my lap was quite good. I struggled a little bit because I didn’t get a lap on new tires this morning, so my preparation wasn’t ideal, but I drove as well as I could. One-two on the grid is the best place to start so now we focus on completing the job in the race.”
The two Ferrari 499Ps will start from the second row of the grid, with the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse driven by Nicklas Nielsen in third place with a best lap of 1:31.596.
“It was a good qualifying session, I am happy with the lap I completed,” Nielsen said. “Obviously, we would have preferred to be closer than Toyota, but we did everything we could. Anyway, we are satisfied with our 499P and are now looking forward to tomorrow’s race: it will be very long, but we will be starting from a good position.
James Calado took fourth, ahead of the No. 6 Porsche 963 Hypercar driven by Kevin Estre, while Nico Mueller in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 took sixth place.
LMP2 saw high drama as Mirko Bortolotti fought back from technical issues and one of his laps being deleted to take the category pole by 0.001 of a second, the smallest margin ever for pole in LMP2. It was also Prema’s first ever WEC pole.
LMGTE Am fell to Ben Keating, who avenged losing a Sebring pole to the Iron Dames Porsche by claiming top spot in Portugal.
The 6-hour race will roll off Sunday.
Keyword: Toyota Sweeps Front Row For WEC at Portimao