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Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI ***Toyota scored its first FIA World Endurance Championship pole position since last year’s Bahrain finale courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi, who led a front-row sweep for the Japanese manufacturer in the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid ahead of Brendon Hartley’s No. 8 car. It marks the third year in a row that Toyota has locked out the top two positions in qualifying at the circuit. ***Kobayashi scored his 18th pole — and his first since last year’s Sao Paulo race — to move ahead of Paul Dalla Lana to take second on the all-time pole list across all classes. Pedro Lamy leads the way on 21 poles. ***Finn Gehrsitz made it a double pole for Toyota-owned brands by topping LMGT3 qualifying in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, making Lexus only the fourth brand to claim more than one pole position in the class. The German driver joins Sarah Bovy and Eduardo Barrichello in the exclusive club of multiple LMGT3 pole winners. ***Antonio Giovinazzi described himself as satis...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Eros Maggi/Lamborghini ***This weekend’s event marks the second time that the Lamborghini World Finals have been held at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, following on from 2021. In total, eight different venues have hosted the event since the first edition in 2013. Jerez was the host venue last year, while Vallelunga, Sepang, Sebring, Valencia, Imola, Vallelunga and Portimao were also previously selected. ***Misano also becomes only the third circuit to host the World Finals more than once after Vallelunga (2013, 2018) and Jerez (2019, 2024) did so previously. ***Renaud Kuppens, who won last year’s Am title, will not take part in the World Finals. His co-driver Hugo Bac will compete solo in the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, which moves up from Pro-Am to Pro as a result of the change. ***The No. 168 RAFA Racing Team machine, due to be driven by Werner Neugebauer and Augusto Soto-Schirripa, was withdrawn from the weekend. Although the ca...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI BMW topped an FIA World Endurance Championship session for just the second time this season with Sheldon van der Linde setting the pace in second Bahrain free practice. The South African set a 1:48.780 in the early stages of the 90-minute session in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, which kept him at the head of the leaderboard throughout. Aston Martin continued its strong showing after topping FP1 by going second quickest, with Marco Sorensen a quarter of a second adrift of van der Linde’s time in the No. 009 Valkyrie. Jean-Eric Vergne was third fastest for Peugeot, his early time of 1:49.201 in the No. 93 9X8 keeping him near the top of the standings. Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi was fourth on a 1:49.342 in the best of the GR010 Hybrids, while Julien Andlauer was fifth in the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963, just a tenth adrift of the Toyota. Ferrari made it six different manufacturers in the top six places courtesy of Antonio Giovinazzi, who posted...

Photo: Eros Maggi/Lamborghini Danny Formal took another step closer to securing the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America title for himself and co-driver Hampus Ericsson with pole position for Race 1 at Misano, while Nick Persing topped qualifying for Race 2. Formal steered the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 to a best lap of 1:33.765 during the first of two back-to-back 20-minute qualifying session at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, the site of this weekend’s Lamborghini World Finals. The Costa Rican outpaced TR3 Racing’s Will Bamber, who sits second in the drivers’ standings, by 0.258 seconds. With the single point on offer for each individual qualifying session, Formal and Ericsson have extended their points lead over Bamber and Elias de la Torre to 17 points, putting them in a strong position to clinch the title during Race 1 on Thursday. Nicolas Jamin took Pro-Am pole in third overall at the wheel of the No. 130 ANSA Motorsport...

Image: Team RLL Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT ranks next year, fielding a GTD Pro entry as part of a newly announced multi-year collaboration with McLaren. The team will run the No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for the full WeatherTech Championship season, with drivers to be announced at a later date. As previously reported by Sportscar365 , Team RLL was working on a program that would see the team remain on the grid after its split with BMW, having been replaced by Team WRT as the operator of the Munich brand’s factory GTP effort. Prior to its step up to the top class, RLL gained extensive experience racing GT cars in both the WeatherTech Championship and the American Le Mans Series. It last competed in GTD Pro in 2022, when it ran the BMW M4 GT3 during that car’s debut season while it prepared to step up to the GTP class a year later. “As someone who has always valued the rich history of motorsport, partnering with ...