Toyota kicked off the final race weekend of the 2025 FIA WEC season in dominant fashion, securing a front-row lockout in qualifying for the 8 Hours of Bahrain. Kamui Kobayashi put the #7 GR010 Hybrid he shares with Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway on pole with a lap of 1:46.826.
Lining up alongside them on Saturday will be the #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, just one tenth of a second shy of the sister car.
Row two will be all Peugeot, with the #94 9X8 of Loïc Duval and newcomers Malthe Jakobsen and Théo Pourchaire taking third, while the #93 machine of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Éric Vergne set the fourth-fastest time.
Championship leaders Ferrari ensured the #51 made it safely into Hyperpole and will start seventh – but qualifying proved punishing for Porsche’s title bid. The #6 Porsche 963 of Kévin Estre, Matt Campbell and Laurens Vanthoor will start from the very back in 18th, while the #5 Porsche did progress to Hyperpole, only for Julien Andlauer, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Heinrich to end up on the fourth row.
Surprise names ahead LMGT3
In LMGT3, there were some surprising names at the time of the time sheets. Pole went to the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3, with young German Finn Gehrsitz delivering a standout lap for the French squad.
Gehrsitz’s 2:01.661 was enough to fend off another surprise from LMGT3 Hyperpole: Mercedes-AMG. The Iron Lynx-run pair delivered their strongest qualifying performance of the year by some margin, locking out second and third.
Among the championship contenders, Vista AF Corse holds the advantage going into the finale. The #21 Ferrari secured eighth on the grid, while Manthey 1st Phorm’s Porsche failed to reach Hyperpole at all and will start from the ninth row.
The race goes green on Saturday 8 November at 12:00 CET. All the results from qualifying can be found here.