Kamui Kobayashi delivered Toyota Gazoo Racing its first pole of the 2024 FIA WEC season as the team locked out the front row for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
Toyota Gazoo Racing secured a front row lockout for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo as Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap aboard the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid to top in Saturday afternoon’s Hyperpole shootout.
On his first meaningful lap in cold conditions at the Interlagos track, Kobayashi established an unbeatable record of 1:23.140, securing Toyota its first pole of the 2024 FIA WEC season. Meanwhile in the sister No. 8 Toyota, Sebastien Buemi proved to be Kobayashi’s closest rival, but ended up 0.122 seconds off the lead.
Matt Campbell was third aboard the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry after topping in the first qualifying segment earlier on with a fastest time of 1:23.263. However, he struggled to maintain the same pace in Hyperpole after making a mistake on his out lap, finishing just under two tenths behind Kobayashi’s benchmark.
Alex Lynn piloting the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R was fourth fastest ahead of Kevin Estre’s No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, which currently leads the championship.
The fastest of Ferrari’s recently upgraded 499Ps was the No. 50 car which only qualified sixth in the hands of Antonio Fuoco, while Alessandro Pier Guidi’s No. 51 car only managed ninth place. Splitting the two were the Hertz Team JOTA Porsches, Callum Ilott’s No. 12 car leading Jenson Button in the No. 38 car.
The No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Robin Frijns rounded out the Hyperpole order in 10th. Alpine narrowly failed to make the Hyperpole cut as Mick Schumacher qualified the faster of the A424s, the No. 36 car, in 11th place.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari also failed to make to the top tens and will start 15th behind the No. 15 WRT BMW that, unlike the sister car, was unable to sneak into the top 10.
Peugeot suffered another disappointing session with its pair of 9X8s, which ended up 16th- and 17th-fastest ahead of the solo Lamborghini SC63 and the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione.
In the LMGT3 class, Sarah Bovy scored Iron Dames’ second pole position of the season aboard her No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, beating Alex Malykhin’s Manthey PureRxcing Porsche by 0.391 seconds.
Bovy topped the first part of LMGT3 qualifying with a best time of 1:35.299 before upping the ante to a 1:34.413 in the 10-minute Hyperpole session.
Malykhin’s late effort of 1:34.804 aboard the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R pushed down the best of the United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, the No. 59 car of James Cottingham, to third place.
Josh Caygill ensured an all-McLaren second row in the No. 95 United entry ahead of the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Yasser Shahin. The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3, another car in contention for the title, will start sixth.
Only nine cars set times in the Hyperpole for the LMGT3 category, as Thomas Flohr in the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari was forced to park up early for causing a red flag.
The Swiss had a spin at Turn 5 on cold tyres at the start of the session, avoided the advertising hoardings on the apex but ended up stranded on the apex, bringing the session to a halt with eight minutes remaining.
Ahead of Hyperpole for the GT3 cars, a couple of key cars failed to make the cut in the first Qualifying session. The No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang and No. 46 WRT BMW ended up 11th and 12th after Ryan Hardwick and Ahmad Al Harthy’s efforts respectively.
The 2024 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo begins at 11:30 local time on Sunday.
