Fuji WEC: Kobayashi, Lopez lead all-Toyota front row

Alonso topped the times in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid after the first runs with a 1m23.203s that put him just over two tenths up on the 1m23.437s from Lopez.

Kobayashi then went quickest during the second runs with a 1m23.678s, which fell six thousandths short of ousting the sister car from pole. 

But when Buemi lost his 1m23.900s to a track limits infringement and could only follow it up with a 1m24.094s, his and Alonso's average dropped below that of their teammates. 

Lopez and Kobayashi ended up on 1m23.557s, which put them a shade over one hundredth up on Alonso and Buemi's 1m23.648s.

Lopez said: "My lap was okay. I didn't have maximum confidence, but I new I was close enough for Kamui to do his job because he is always quick around here." 

The two Rebellion-Gibson R-13 LMP1s both ended up with a second of the Toyota TS050s following the latest Equivalence of Technology changes made in the lead-up to and during the event.

Andre Lotterer's best lap in the #1 Rebellion Racing entry was only eight tenths off Alonso's pace. He and teammate Neel Jani ended up a similar margin off the pole with a 1m24.359s average. 

That put them just under two tenths up on the 1m24.533s average of the second Rebellion qualified by Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent.

SMP Racing took fifth and sixth positions with its pair of AER-engined BR Engineering BR1s. 

Jenson Button just pipped Stephane Sarrazin on the first runs, but Egor Orudzhev then went a second quicker than Vitaly Petrov to reverse the positions of the two BR1s in the final qualifying order. 

Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez took LMP2 pole aboard the DragonSpeed Oreca on Michelin types. 

Davidson set the fastest P2 time of the session with a 1m28.011s, which Gonzalez followed up on with a 1m29.802s.

That was enough to give them a 1m28.906s average and a half second advantage over the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Jazeman Jaafar and Nabil Jeffri. 

The second of the Dunlop-shod DCR Orecas qualified third in the hands of Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry. 

The new Aston Martin Vantage GTE claimed its first class pole position in GTE Pro with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen. 

Thiim topped the times after the first runs with a session-best 1m35.884s, before Sorensen followed it up with a 1m36.302s. 

That gave the Danish duo an 1m36.093s average, which gave them the pole by nearly two tenths from the MTEK BMW M8 GTE shared by Tom Blomqvist and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Blomqvist was the only driver other than Thiim to break the 1m36m barrier. His 1m35.930s combined with da Costa's 1m36.621s to give them a 1m36.275s average. 

Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin in the second Aston were a further tenth back in 1m36.362s.

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell took fourth in the best of the Ganassi-run Ford GTs with a 1m36.453s average.

Top Ferrari drivers were Davide Rigon and Sam Bird in fifth with a 1m35.584s average, while the fastest Porsche drivers were Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz in eighth. 

Matteo Cairoli and WEC debutant Satoshi Hoshino took GTE Am pole for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche team. 

LMP1 and LMP2 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'23.557
2	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'23.648	0.091
3	1	Andre Lotterer   Bruno Senna   Neel Jani	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'24.359	0.802
4	3	Mathias Beche   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'24.533	0.976
5	17	Stéphane Sarrazin   Matevos Isaakyan   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'24.744	1.187
6	11	Jenson Button   Vitaly Petrov   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'25.146	1.589
7	4	Oliver Webb   Tom Dillmann   James Rossiter	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'26.579	3.022
8	10	Ben Hanley   James Allen	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'26.713	3.156
9	31	Anthony Davidson   Pastor Maldonado   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'28.906	5.349
10	37	Nabil Jeffri   Weiron Tan   Jazeman Jaafar	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'29.203	5.646
11	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'29.294	5.737
12	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'29.432	5.875
13	28	Jean-Eric Vergne   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'30.795	7.238
14	29	Giedo van der Garde   Nyck de Vries   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'31.440	7.883
15	50	Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed  Keiko lhara	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'32.677	9.120

GTE results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Average	Gap
1	95	Nicki Thiim   Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'36.093
2	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Tom Blomqvist	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'36.275	0.182
3	97	Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'36.362	0.269
4	67	Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'36.453	0.360
5	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'36.542	0.449
6	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'36.544	0.451
7	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'36.737	0.644
8	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'36.776	0.683
9	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'36.967	0.874
10	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'37.109	1.016
11	88	Matteo Cairoli   Giorgio Roda  Satoshi Hoshino	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.336	2.243
12	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	1'38.400	2.307
13	77	Christian Ried   Matt Campbell  Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.524	2.431
14	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.578	2.485
15	90	Jonathan Adam   Salih Yoluc   Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	1'38.598	2.505
16	61	Matthew Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	1'39.330	3.237
17	86	Michael Wainwright   Benjamin Barker  Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'39.355	3.262
18	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	1'39.371	3.278
19	70	Olivier Beretta   Eddie Cheever III   Motoaki Ishikawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	1'39.885	3.792