Hartley thrilled to beat "Mr Qualifying" Kobayashi to pole
Beating Kamui Kobayashi made taking pole position for the Le Mans 24 Hours extra special for Brendon Hartley because his Toyota teammate is “Mr Qualifying” at the French enduro.
Claiming the pole by four tenths of a second aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in Thursday evening’s Hyperpole session “felt amazing”, according to Hartley.
“Kamui is Mr Qualifying around here; he does some amazing stuff and he wanted that fifth pole position,” said Hartley, who co-drives with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.
“The car felt amazing, so thanks to my teammates for letting me have all the fun. I think I was a bit emotional; it’s high emotion to do pole position at Le Mans.”
Hartley said the achievement was made even sweeter because he had narrowly missed out on pole for Le Mans last year when Kobayashi beat him to the top spot by three tenths after he was baulked at the final corner on his quick lap.
He revealed that he believed his bid to turn the tables on the driver of the #7 Toyota this time was over when he encountered traffic on the first lap of his second run of the half-hour session.
Hartley sat at the top of the times after the first runs with a 3m25.213s, which compared with Kobayashi’s 3m26.130s.
He then got baulked in the Porsche Curves and was leapfrogged by Kobayashi and Nicolas Lapierre in the Alpine A480-Gibson.
“I got traffic in the Porsche Curves and I thought it was all over - I’d gone from P1 to P3,” he explained. “There was a lot of pressure on that last lap after I got the traffic.
“I had to put everything on the line, so I'm happy it all came together.”
Hartley was able to improve to a 3m24.408s even though his “tyres were past their peak” to secure the pole ahead of Kobayashi.
The Japanese driver lost his quickest time of 3m24.585s to a track limits infraction at Tertre Rouge and was credited with 3m24.828s, which was still just good enough for him to stay ahead of Lapierre.
Kobayashi admitted disappointment on missing out on a record-breaking fifth overall pole.
“It’s a shame, but I did my best,” he said. “Brendon did a great job, this is how it is.”
Kobayashi encountered traffic on his final lap and also admitted that his tyres were dropping off in performance over the course of the lap.
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