Toyota scores double in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Portimao

There was no match Saturday in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Portimao, and the Toyotas accelerated from free practice, leaving the competition more than a second behind. At the Pole, on Sunday, we will find GR010 n ° 8 by Brendon Hartley, author of the best time of 1’30” 171, beating the alpine record set in 2021 (1’30” 364). The New Zealander was ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, the No. 7 Toyota driver, by 27 one hundredths.

At the rear, the fastest hypercar, the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, comes in with Niklas Nielsen at the wheel, 1″ 42 behind the No. 8 Toyota. There is a gap, while the positions tighten during free practice. 3. The second Ferrari, No. 51 (James Calado), Fourth at 1″ 75, ahead of the #6 Porsche 963 (Kevin Esther), 5 at 2″ 23.

The best Peugeot 9X8 finished sixth: Nico Muller, in No. 94, finished at 2.34, and second French Hypercar, No. 93 (Paul di Resta), finished 9th in 2.53. The No. 5 Porsche (Frederic Makowiecki) and No. 2 Cadillac (Richard Westbrook) are entered among the 9X8s. In the Hypercars peloton finish, Glickenhaus n°708 (Romain Dumas) is 10th at 3’17, then Vanwall n°4 (Tom Dillmann), 11th at 3’66.

In LMP2, the pole was capped at a thousand

In LMP2, eleven cars are held at the same second. The fastest driver is Dorian Bean’s teammate Mirko Bortolotti in the No. 63 Prima at 1’34” 303. He is ahead of Vector Sport’s No. 10 Gabriel Aubry by only a thousandth of a second. United Cars No. 22 (Phil Hanson) is at 14 one-hundredths.Alpine is farther: No. 35 (André Negrao) tenth at 69 one-hundreds, No. 36 (Mathieu Vaxiviere) eleventh at 93 one-hundreds.

In the GTE Am class, after an intense duel with the No. 33 Porsche 911 with Sarah Bovey at the wheel, it was Ben Keating’s Chevrolet Corvette that set the best time, at 1’41” 362, 21 hundredths short of the Iron Crew Dames.