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.”
Source: Autosport