Jani, who set a clear fastest time in FP2 and FP3 at the Bahrain International Circuit started the early run in the Porsche 919 Hybrid rapidly, peaking with a 1:41.897 to set the best ever LM P1 lap at Bahrain International Circuit. Romain Dumas then took over the cockpit after 11 minutes of the session and contributed a succession of quick laps to lower the average time and ultimately seal the overall pole position and the extra point.

The Porsche Team is confident that some small but significant mechanical changes to the 919 Hybrid since Shanghai will contribute a sustained challenge to Toyota Racing in the race tomorrow, as they aim to score their first race victory in their return to the premier class of endurance racing.

Davidson and Buemi, minds fixed firmly on their 2014 World Endurance Championship title quest, will line up alongside the #8 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid on the rolling front-row tomorrow afternoon. The pair need to finish fifth or higher in the LM P1-H class to seal the 2014 FIA WEC crown.

The first row of the grid is mirrored by the second row, as the No.20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard head the No.7 Toyota Racing entry of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.

The #1 Audi driven by André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler in qualifying today will start in fifth place on the starting grid. As the closest challengers to Davidson and Buemi for the FIA World Endurance Championship for Drivers’, the #2 Audi crew have a mountain to climb if they are to pull off an unlikely late title challenge.

The other Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas Di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval sat out the qualifying session after their chassis was being replaced due to an issue with the floor mountings of the car. The newly built-up Audi R18 e-tron Quattro will be able to start from the rear of the LM P1 grid after being re-scrutineered by the FIA Technical Delegate once the work is completed.

In the LM P1-L class, the in-house Rebellion Racing qualifying battle was won by the #12 Rebellion R-One Toyota, as Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost bettered the sister #13 Rebellion R-One driven by Fabio Leimer and Dominik Kraihamer by six-tenths of a second.

The LM P2 class again fell to G-Drive Racing as they claimed their sixth pole of the season. First, Roman Rusinov and then Olivier Pla again demonstrated the pace of the Ligier JS P2 coupe to lead their title rivals - #27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan, which was driven as usual in qualifying by Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani. The Russians second Michelin shod Oreca-Nissan placed third with Kiril Ladygin and Viktor Shaitar piloting the red, white and blue car to an average four-lap time just 0.080s slower than their sister car.

Aston Martin Racing today claimed pole position in both the LM GTE Pro and Am classes for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Bahrain, the seventh round of the 8-race FIA World Endurance Championship.

Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke in the No.97 Vantage V8 claimed their second pole of the season in the Pro category with a 4-lap average lap time of 1:58.805, while the No.95 ‘Dane Train’ of Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeier Hansson and Nicki Thiim remarkably, for a three-time race winner, claimed its first pole of 2014 in a time of 1:59.589.

The British-German duo in the No.97 didn’t have it all their own way, however. They were pushed to the final seconds of the 25-minute qualifying session by the GT championship-leading No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. The Italian set the fastest GTE lap of the weekend so far (1:58.122), but a minor error on the Finn’s final lap meant that the average of the two best laps of the two drivers put them 0.27s behind pole.

Third in the class was the sister AF Corse car, the No.71 of Davide Rigon and James Calado, which recorded an average lap time of 1:59.226, followed by the No.99 Aston Martin of MacDowall and Rees. Despite going quicker than at any time over the weekend so far, the two Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSRs appeared to struggle in qualifying and they finished in fifth and sixth in class, a less than favourable result for Championship contender Frédéric Makowiecki in the No.92. The Frenchman badly needs a win in Bahrain tomorrow to keep alive his title hopes.

Less than a second separated the top eight cars across the two classes, and the two Aston Martin Racing entries were once again a class act in LM GTE Am. Nicki Thiim set the pace for the No.95 Vantage V8 with two quick laps which put him firmly among the fastest cars in the session, and this was then ably backed up by Kristian Poulsen. The Danes led an Aston Martin Racing 1-2 as Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard qualified less than two tenths of a second behind their team mates.

A fast-lapping Alessandro Pier Guidi and American Jeff Segal did a great combined job to put the No.61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 in third place, but their Am team mates in the No.81 – Andrea Bertolini and Michele Rugolo fared less well. A brake problem on the Ferrari meant that newly crowned ELMS LM GTE Champion Bertolini only completed two laps in qualifying and Rugolo did not drive at all. The team elected to sit out the session to fix the problem and save the tyres for tomorrow’s race.

The qualifying session today was run under the fully floodlit Bahrain International Circuit, as the majority of the race will be tomorrow. The green flag for the 6 Hours of Bahrain will be given at 15h00 local (13h00 CET) and live timing can be found via FIA WEC or on the FIAWEC App.

CLICK HERE for the results from Qualifying

- FIA WEC press release -

PHOTO: SAKHIR (BAHRAIN), BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT, 6 HOURS OF BAHRAIN, FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2014, QUALIFYING. Aston Martin Racing secured the pole in the LM GTE Pro class.