Toyota has thrown down the gauntlet to its rivals for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship Manufacturers’ crown in Bahrain today (1 November), with a commanding performance in qualifying to lock out the front row of the grid for Saturday’s title-deciding finale.

For the third year in a row, Brendon Hartley put the #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 Hybrid on pole position around Bahrain International Circuit, where the Japanese outfit boasts an enviable record, having won 75 per cent of the WEC races held there to-date. Tomorrow, the New Zealander together with team-mates Sébastien Buemi and Ryō Hirakawa will aim to become the first Hypercar crew to successfully convert pole into victory this year.

Hartley wound up just under a third-of-a-second quicker than team-mate Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota, with Antonio Giovinazzi missing out on a spot on the front row by barely four hundredths in the best of the Ferrari 499Ps.

Neel Jani was the highest-placed Porsche driver in fourth in the independent Proton Competition entry – the Swiss star setting the pace in the final sector of the lap – with the two principal protagonists for the Drivers’ title set to line up alongside one another on row three. Behind the wheel of the #50 Ferrari, Antonio Fuoco edged out Kévin Estre in the championship-leading #6 Porsche by a mere 0.015s.

McLaren mastery in LMGT3

United Autosports hit their adversaries with the old one-two in the LMGT3 category, with Joshua Caygill and James Cottingham’s McLarens separated by a scant two thousandths-of-a-second at the top of the timing screens as the former secured the British outfit’s first pole position of the campaign.

Fuji pole-sitter François Heriau pushed the pair hardest in third to maintain Vista AF Corse’s strong finish to the season with the Ferrari 296 GT3, as Sarah Bovy slotted the Iron Dames’ Lamborghini Huracán into fourth, ahead of Aliaksandr Malykhin in the recently-crowned #92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche. Barely a second blanketed the entire LMGT3 top ten, setting the scene for a spectacularly close scrap on race day.

The Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 local time (12:00 CET) on Saturday (2 November).

Watch all the action LIVE via the official FIA WEC app.

For a full breakdown of the broadcast coverage for the 6 Hours of Bahrain, click HERE.