The extra point of the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar Hartley shares with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa is significant in the championship battle between the two crews from the Japanese manufacturer.
It means that the the #8 crew only have to finish third to to take the WEC Hypercar title even if Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez win the race.
Hartley took the point with a 1m46.564s to repeat his 2022 pole for the Bahrain 8 Hours, which gave him a margin of nearly half a second over Kobayashi.
The Japanese driver set a 1m47.053s to secure second by two tenths from the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series-R in which Alex Lynn posted a 1m47.265s.
Kevin Estre sneaked up to fourth at the end of the 15-minute Hypercar session with a 1m47.712s aboard the best of the two Penske Porsche 963 LMDhs.
His lap pushed Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH down to fifth by a couple of hundredths of a second.
Fuoco’s 1m47.739s was a tenth up on team-mate Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second of the factory AF Corse-run Ferraris.
The second factory Porsche was a further tenth back in Frederic Makowiecki’s hands in seventh position ahead of the two customer 963s, Gianmaria Bruni in the Proton Competition entry just besting Will Stevens in the Jota car.
The two Peugeot 9X8 LMHs filled out 10th and 11th places, Paul di Resta ahead of Nico Muller, while the Vanwall Vandervell 680 brought up the rear of the Hypercar field in Esteban Guerrieri’s hands.
Source: Autosport