Alexander Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Toyota Racing were forced to wait right until the chequered flag in order to celebrate their second consecutive pole position in qualifying today for the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
The Austrian-French duo set a combined fastest average time of 1:48.013 in their No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid, and the team was confident pole position was secure when all the other LMP1 entries came into the pits. However, the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, driven in qualifying by Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer, made a last-ditch attempt to regain the dominance shown by the German manufacturer in practice and kept Toyota on the edge of their seats. In the end, the gap between the two hybrid-powered prototypes was just 0.08 seconds!
Third in LMP1 was the No.8 Toyota of Stephane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi, its best average time being 1:48.694 – 0.68s from its sister car – followed by the No.2 Audi of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. With tyre degradation being an issue which has affected teams up and down the grid, tyre management is likely to have been a factor in determining the maximum number of laps completed by many teams in qualifying today.
The No.12 Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota rounded out the top class, the LMP1 Privateer entry being driven in qualifying by Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche and its best average being 1:51.204 – the closest margin to the factory entries so far this weekend.
In LMP2, the No.26 G-Drive Racing entry claimed pole position for the third time in four races, some margin ahead of the hard-charging No.24 OAK Racing and No.41 Greaves Motorsport entries who were separated by only 0.009s. John Martin of Australia and Britain’s Mike Conway set the benchmark with an average of 1:55.423 in the Russian-entered ORECA 03 Nissan – the average of the two best laps of the two drivers being over half a second ahead of the second and third placed LMP2 cars.
Alex Brundle raised the No.24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan from 4th to 2nd in class with a strong performance, as did newcomer to the FIA WEC from the Nissan GT Academy, Mark Schulzhitskiy. His best laps were agonisingly close to promoting the No.41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan to the first row of the LMP2 grid, but just fell short by the narrowest of gaps.
The close battles throughout the field promise a great 6 Hours of Shanghai tomorrow, the 7th and penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship beginning at 11:00 am local (0400 hours CET).
1. P1 Wurz/Lapierre Toyota 1m48.013s2. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 1m48.102s +0.089s3. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 1m48.694s +0.681s4. P1 Kristensen/Duval/McNish Audi 1m49.173s +1.160s5. P1 Belicchi/Beche/Prost Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m51.204s +3.191s6. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m55.423s7. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m56.210s +0.787s8. P2 Shulzhitckiy/Lux/Wirdheim Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m56.219s +0.796s9. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m56.243s +0.820s10 P2 Graves/Kerr/Dolby Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m56.284s +0.861s11 P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m56.971s +1.548s12 P2 Weeda/Liuzzi/Bouchut Lotus 1m57.531s +2.108s13 P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus 1m57.639s +2.216s14 P2 Nicolet/Ihara/Cheng OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m59.063s +3.640s15 GTE P Turner/Mucke Aston Martin 2m04.370s16 GTE P Lamy/Senna/Stanaway Aston Martin 2m04.389s +0.019s17 GTE P Lieb/Lietz Manthey Porsche 2m04.881s +0.511s18 GTE P Kobayashi/Vilander AF Ferrari 2m04.887s +0.517s19 GTE P Bergmeister/Pilet Manthey Porsche 2m05.049s +0.679s20 GTE P Bruni/Fisichella AF Ferrari 2m05.222s +0.852s21 GTE A Nygaard/Poulsen/Thiim Aston Martin 2m05.903s22 GTE A Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 2m05.918s +0.015s23 GTE A Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon 8Star Ferrari 2m06.150s +0.247s24 GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 2m06.416s +0.513s25 GTE A Narac/Vernay/Palttala Imsa Porsche 2m06.738s +0.835s26 GTE A Campbell-Walter/Hall/Adam Aston Martin 2m06.943s +1.040s27 GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 2m07.584s +1.681s28 GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 2m07.669s +1.766sinShare
