Brendon Hartley was severely hindered by traffic during qualifying
The driver of the Toyota number 8 had a lot of difficulties in putting everything together during the qualifications. He only secured his place for the hyperpole in the last minutes.

The qualifying session was very disrupted. Two red flags interrupted the session and several track exits required the intervention of yellow flags. All these incidents disturbed Brendon Hartley, who was behind the wheel during this session.
“It was quite tight in the qualifying. In my first lap, I backed off because I got too close to a Peugeot. I should have completed that lap and had a decent time in hand because then I had a series of yellow flags right in front of me,” said the Toyota driver.
After the various interruptions, the New Zealander was disrupted by the traffic and lost a lot of time, but he was able to have a clear track at the end of the session. It’s a relief to qualify for the hyperpole. We haven’t been the fastest and we’re not yet at 100% with the balance of our car. We’re still trying to find compromises on the settings, but we’re striving to find more performance for the hyperpole and the race.