Former Toro Rosso driver puts Toyota on pole for WEC race

His (short) career in Formula 1 had few highlights, but in endurance racing Brandon Hartley is always one of the standouts. In Portimao, Portugal, the New Zealander once again excelled. On Saturday afternoon, the former Toro Rosso driver put Toyota on pole for the 6 Hours of Portimao, to be held on Sunday.

Hartley completed the lap in 1:30.171. The Toyota Gazoo Racing team is the big favourite in the hypercars in Portugal for now. The Japanese manufacturer also occupies the second spot on the grid. Behind the wheel of the second Toyota during qualifying was Kamui Kobayashi, who also has a past in Formula 1. The Japanese driver was 0.273 seconds slower than Hartley. Behind both Toyotas were both Ferraris.

The difference between the two Toyotas was very small. Afterwards, Brandon Hartley said at the press conference, "I knew when I crossed the line it was pretty clean and Kamui would be close behind and if he got in front of the lap, it was, yeah, I would have congratulated him. Because it was pretty clean and my car was feeling really nice. I think we've made good steps over the last three sessions and we have a good feeling going into the race. But I'm expecting it to be to be very close with particularly Ferrari, but actually Cadillac and Porsche were right there as well."

Qualifying Results

1. Toyota (Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa): 1.30.171
2. Toyota (Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez): 1.30.444
3. Ferrari AF Corse (Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen: 1.31.596
4. Ferrari AF Corse (Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/AntonioGiovinazzi): 1.31.923
5. Porsche Penske (Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor): 1.32.404
6. Peugeot (Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller): 1.32.517
7. Porsche Penske (Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki): 1'32.560
8. Cadillac (Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook): 1'32.582
9. Peugeot (Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne): 1'32.703
10. Glickenhaus (Romain Dumas/Ryan Briscoe/Olivier Pla): 1.33.343
11. Floyd Vanwall (Tom Dillmann/Esteban Guerrieri/JacquesVilleneuve): 1.33.836