Porsche claimed its second consecutive pole and third of the FIA WEC season following a dominant qualifying run by Romain Dumas and Neel Jani on Friday at Bahrain International Circuit.
The No. 14 Porsche 919 Hybrid completed a best four-lap average of 1:43.145 in the 25-minute prototype qualifying session, outpacing the championship-leading No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid by 0.265 seconds.
It marked back-to-back poles for Jani and Dumas, who will be joined in the cockpit by Marc Lieb in Saturday's Six Hours of Bahrain.
While Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi look to lock up the championship on Saturday starting from second on the grid, the sister No. 20 Porsche, qualified by Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, will roll off from third on the grid.
The No. 7 Toyota and No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro completed the top-five overall and in LMP1-H, with the No. 1 Audi not setting a time due to its second complete rebuild of the weekend due to tub damage.
The Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi-driven entry will start from the rear of the LMP1 field tomorrow, after getting dispensation from the FIA.
Rebellion Racing's Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost claimed LMP1-L pole honors in their No. 12 Rebellion R-One Toyota. The duo's 1:47.047 was nearly four seconds slower than the pole-winning Porsche's best average.
In LMP2, G-Drive Racing claimed its sixth pole in seven races this year, with Olivier Pla and Roman Rusinov completing a 1:50.236 average in their Dunlop-shod Ligier JS P2 Nissan.
It was enough to outpace the championship-leading No. 27 SMP Racing Oreca 03R Nissan of Nic Minassian and Maurizio Mediani by 0.703 seconds.
Pla and Rusinov will be joined by Julien Canal on Saturday.
Minassian and Mediani's co-driver, Sergey Zlobin's lead has been reduced to seven points as a result of G-Drive's pole.
The No. 37 SMP Oreca-Nissan will line up third in class, ahead by the freshly rebuilt No. 47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan following its opening lap accident in Shanghai.
Aston Martin Racing swept GTE-Pro and GTE-Am qualifying honors for the third consecutive race, with the No. 97 Vantage GTE to lead the GTE-Pro field to the green.
Darren Turner and Stefan Muecke combined for a four-lap average of 1:58.805 in the 25-minute nighttime qualifying session. The No. 97 car outpaced the pair of AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia GTs by more than three-tenths.
It marked the duo's second consecutive pole, as they seek to repeat the success at Circuit of The Americas in September.
Championship leaders Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander will roll off second on the grid, followed by the the sister No. 71 entry of Davide Rigon and James Calado in third.
The No. 99 Craft-Bamboo Racing-backed Aston, qualified by Alex MacDowall and Fernando Rees, will start fourth, while the pair of Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSRs struggled in the 25-minute session and ended up fifth and sixth in class.
Nicki Thiim and Kristian Poulsen, meanwhile, claimed their first pole of the season in GTE-Am, thanks to their 1:59.589 average in the No. 95 Aston Martin.
The pairing edged out the sister No. 98 Aston, qualified by Christoffer Nygaard and Pedro Lamy, by 0.132 seconds.
Poulsen and co-driver David Heinemeier Hansson can lock up the GTE-Am title with a class win on Saturday.
Best of the rest honors in GTE-Am went to the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Jeff Segal, with a respectable 2:00.068 average in their orange-colored Prancing Horse.
The FIA WEC Six Hours of Bahrain takes the green flag Saturday at 3 p.m. local (8 a.m. ET).
