Qualifying report
WEC Shanghai
ESM Patrón qualifies fifth and sixth at Shanghai
Johannes van Overbeek and David Brabham qualified in fifth and Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel qualified in sixth.
Edited: Nov 1, 2014, 6:37 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Shanghai, China – In its first overseas FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) qualifying session, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) averaged the fifth and sixth quickest times in the LMP2 class. As a result, ESM will start fifth and sixth in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Shanghai race.
Per the FIA WEC rules, the two best lap times from each team’s qualifying drivers are averaged together in order to determine the starting position.
Johannes van Overbeek and David Brabham qualified the No. 31 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b in fifth. Van Overbeek’s best lap was 1:57.114. Brabham’s best lap was 1:56.587. Ed Brown is the third driver of the No. 30 Tequila Patrón HPD.
We have some work to do tonight to get better for tomorrow and try to get both Patrón cars on the podium.
Ryan Dalziel
Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel qualified the No. 30 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b in sixth. Sharp’s best lap was 1:58.559. Dalziel’s best lap was 1:55.189. Ricardo Gonzalez co-drives with Sharp and Dalziel this weekend.
Rain plagued Friday’s two practice sessions. The first session would eventually dry with the No. 30 team of Sharp, Dalziel and Gonzalez posted the second quickest time of the session, less than one second behind the leader.
In the second practice, the No. 30 team was again second quickest, a mere fourth-tenths behind the leaders. The No. 31 team of Brown, van Overbeek and Brabham were third quickest in class.
The 6 Hours of Shanghai on October 31-November 2 is the sixth of eight races in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Green flag drops at 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 2 (11 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 1).
Ed Brown: “We didn’t get a lot of laps because of the weather conditions. I’ve never seen a race won in qualifying and there’s a six hour race ahead of us. We need to stay clean, do our jobs and we’ll be in good shape for the race.
“I’m proud of the qualifying effort of Johannes and David. This is the first time Johannes and I have been here. The track is interesting and challenging. Then when you add that the mixture of weather – wet and dry. The conditions keep changing and we keep adapting.
“The Tequila Patrón ESM team has worked hard to get us here. We have a great engineering team, pit crew and driver lineup. We’ll be competitive for the race. Six hours is a long time and we’re looking forward to seeing both ESM Patrón Hondas on the podium Sunday evening.”
David Brabham: “It was a challenging qualifying session. We haven’t had many laps here this weekend. I did about six or seven laps on Friday and no laps this morning. I haven’t driven since March and I have a bit of catching up to do. I left some on the table during my laps. The car balance isn’t where we’d like it. This is a tricky track and surface. We’re getting a lot of information and this will help us for the race.
“Our strategy is to have a clean race. We might not have the fastest car but we know if we have a clean, smart and keep a good, fast and consistent pace, the result should come to us.”
Scott Sharp: “It is an incredible experience to drive the Tequila Patrón Honda prototypes at Shanghai International Circuit. The track surface is very challenging which makes it difficult to adjust the Dunlop tires and setup. We’re continuing to learn and make the necessary adjustments now and throughout the race tomorrow.
“We have a strong ESM Patrón crew and they’ve put a lot of work into these cars just to get to China. We’re here to race, be competitive and we’re aiming for that podium.”
Ryan Dalziel: “It looked dark at the start of qualifying. I thought it was going to be raining pretty hard by the end of the lap. Luckily the rain held off all day. We’re still learning and missed it a little bit in qualifying.
That’s why we’re here and doing this – to learn and get the Tequila Patrón cars further up the grid. We’ve got some work to do. At Austin, we had the same feeling where we really don’t have the best qualifying car, but we have a good race car.
“We have some work to do tonight to get better for tomorrow and try to get both Patrón cars on the podium. We do exactly what we did after Austin qualifying. We’ll continue to work and make changes. We’re still learning about the combination of Dunlop tires on the Honda chassis. There are a lot of smart guys here at Patrón ESM, so I’m confident we’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Extreme Speed Motorsports
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rebellion Racing's R-Ones # 12 and #13 both on the fourth row at Shanghai
Next article Toyota enjoys 1-2 finish at Shanghai
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Johannes van Overbeek
Laguna Seca IMSA: Victory for ESM Nissan, heartbreak for Mazda
IMSA
IMSA
Laguna Seca
Laguna Seca IMSA: Victory for ESM Nissan, heartbreak for Mazda
Derani dedicates Sebring victory to sick father
IMSA
IMSA
Sebring
Derani dedicates Sebring victory to sick father
Senna: “Our drive-through was not deserved. They took our race”
IMSA
IMSA
Road Atlanta
Senna: “Our drive-through was not deserved. They took our race”
More from
ESM Racing
Nato replaces Giovinazzi at ESM for Petit Le Mans
IMSA
IMSA
Nato replaces Giovinazzi at ESM for Petit Le Mans
ESM “working on a number of scenarios” to replace Patron
IMSA
IMSA
ESM “working on a number of scenarios” to replace Patron
Tequila Patron to end team and IMSA series sponsorship
IMSA
IMSA
Tequila Patron to end team and IMSA series sponsorship
Latest news
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 1 h
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
1 h
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
2 h
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
8 h
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe