Brendon Hartley’s pole aboard the #8 GR010 HYBRID he shares with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa means the trio now only have to finish third to seal the title even if the sister Le Mans Hypercar driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez wins the eight-hour race on Saturday.
Had the extra point gone to Kobayashi, who went up against Hartley in qualifying, or if another manufacturer took pole, the Japanese driver and his team-mates would have taken the WEC Hypercar title on count-back with the Toyotas finishing first and third.
“A lot of emphasis went on pole position on both sides of the garage because that point was quite crucial,” said Hartley.
“Both car crews tried to set up the cars to give us the opportunity [to go for pole].
“We ticked the box and it was nice for Toyota to recognise that the one point was important, so we went all in for quali.”
The added emphasis of which Hartley spoke included sending the two Toyotas out for qualifying on the medium compound Michelin rather than the harder tyre available to the Hypercar teams for this race.
“I’m not sure too many other teams put on the medium tyre, which is clearly much quicker in qualifying,” explained Hartley.
“It shows we wanted the pole more; the team was clear on that.”
Toyota also undertook its quali simulation in second free practice rather than in FP3 as usual, because the conditions on Thursday evening were expected to be similar to those encountered in qualifying at the same time as day.
“That’s why we looked very strong yesterday and not so good this morning,” said Hartley.
Both Toyotas used an extra set of tyres in FP2 and had no fresh rubber left for FP3 when they ended up eighth and ninth in the times.
Hartley admitted that the Toyota Gazoo Racing team’s aggressive qualifying strategy could have negative repercussions for the race.
The set of mediums used in qualifying now becomes part of each car’s rubber allocation for the race, which stands at 26 tyres for an eight-hour WEC event.
Hartley described the mediums “as an unknown for the race” because of the abrasive surface of the Bahrain International Circuit, as well as ambient temperatures around 30 degrees C.
“From a strategy point of view, maybe the safer option would have been to qualify on the hard, because it remains to see if we can do a double stint on the mediums,” he said.
“We don’t know if there is a big drop or not, but we know that on a full double stint around here there is a huge amount of tyre degradation.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon was less pessimistic about having to use the medium Michelin in the race.
He said the team is “not really concerned about using them at the end of the race” when the temperatures drop after nightfall.
The Bahrain 8 Hours starts at 14:00 local time with dusk due just after 17:00.
