Nurburgring WEC: Audi locks out front row ahead of Porsche
The #7 Audi of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler will start the WEC 6 Hours of Nurburgring from pole position, as the team beat sister marque Porsche to sweep the front row after a strategic battle in mixed conditions.
Photo by: Vision Sport Agency
Lotterer and Fassler, who are competing without usual co-pilot Benoit Treluyer this weekend, set an average time of 1m39.444s to take their second pole position of the season.
It was the sister #8 R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas di Grassi that set the quickest time of the session, a 1m38.777s, but Oliver Jarvis couldn’t match the pace of Lotterer early in the session.
Jarvis, taking over from di Grassi in the final minutes, also suffered a spin at the NGK chicane in the dying stages as he looked to improve his time.
That meant that the average time for the #8 car fell short of the #7 by 0.266s, despite Fassler’s failure to improve on the 1m39.239s set by Lotterer.
Porsche occupies the second row, with the #1 car of Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard setting an average time of 1m39.861s.
Like Jarvis, Webber was caught out at the NGK chicane while on course to set a new fastest time late in the session, misjudging his braking and cutting the corner.
The sister #2 919 Hybrid of Marc Lieb and Neel Jani was fourth fastest, 0.032s back on the #1.
Toyota was unable to keep pace with its German rivals in the mixed conditions, ending up fifth and sixth on the grid.
The fifth-placed #6 TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarrazin ended up 1.195s down on the best of the Audis, but 0.019s up on the #5 car of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.
Rebellion’s #13 car came out on top in the LMP1-L battle, 6.638s off the leading pace.
In LMP2, Rene Rast ensured the #26 G-Drive Oreca he shares with Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle will start from class pole, Rast and Rusinov setting a combined time of 1m48.985s.
Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi took the #36 Signatech Alpine to second in class, 0.742s behind the G-Drive car and a scant 0.035s clear of the third-placed #42 Strakka Gibson, piloted by Jonny Kane and team newcomer Lewis Williamson.
Aston Martin tops GTE session
The GTE Pro qualifying battle was won by Aston Martin, with the #95 duo of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson beating the best of the Fords – the #66 of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla – by 0.247s.
Thiim left it late to clinch the pole with a best time of 1m59.033s when the track was at its driest, although the quickest time in the session came courtesy of Gianmaria Bruni in the #51 Ferrari.
But, despite Bruni’s late effort of 1m58.548s, combined with James Calado’s time it was only enough for fourth in class, 0.800s off the pace, and behind the #97 Aston Martin.
The sister #71 Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon struggled badly on the wrong tyres, and starts last of the GTE Pro cars and behind a number of GTE Am cars.
Topping the Am division was the #88 Porsche of Pat Long and Khaled Al-Qubaisi, who overcame the #78 duo of Wolf Henzler and Joel Camathias by only 0.186s.
LMP qualifying times:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'39.444 | |
2 | 8 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'39.710 | 0.266 |
3 | 1 | Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'39.861 | 0.417 |
4 | 2 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'39.893 | 0.449 |
5 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'40.639 | 1.195 |
6 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'40.748 | 1.304 |
7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 1'46.081 | 6.637 |
8 | 4 | Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer |
CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 1'46.907 | 7.463 |
9 | 12 | Nick Heidfeld Nicolas Prost Mathias Beche |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 1'47.026 | 7.582 |
10 | 26 | Roman Rusinov René Rast Alex Brundle |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'48.984 | 9.540 |
11 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'49.727 | 10.283 |
12 | 42 | Nick Leventis Jonny Kane Lewis Williamson |
Gibson 015S | LMP2 | 1'49.762 | 10.318 |
13 | 43 | Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'50.105 | 10.661 |
14 | 44 | Antonio Pizzonia Matthew Howson Tor Graves |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'50.372 | 10.928 |
15 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani David Markozov Nicolas Minassian |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'50.948 | 11.504 |
16 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'51.194 | 11.750 |
17 | 45 | Roberto Merhi Richard Bradley Matthew Rao |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'51.294 | 11.850 |
18 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'51.667 | 12.223 |
19 | 35 | Nelson Panciatici Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'52.506 | 13.062 |
20 | 30 | Scott Sharp Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'56.462 | 17.018 |
GTE qualifying times:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.712 | |
2 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.959 | 0.247 |
3 | 97 | Darren Turner Richie Stanaway |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.220 | 0.508 |
4 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.512 | 0.800 |
5 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx Marino Franchitti |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.256 | 1.544 |
6 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.681 | 1.969 |
7 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'06.011 | 4.299 |
8 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'06.197 | 4.485 |
9 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'06.372 | 4.660 |
10 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 2'06.589 | 4.877 |
11 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'06.745 | 5.033 |
12 | 50 | Paolo Ruberti Pierre Ragues Yutaka Yamagishi |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 2'09.127 | 7.415 |
13 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'09.820 | 8.108 |
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