Shanghai WEC: Kobayashi flyer gives Toyota pole
Toyota claimed its first FIA World Endurance Championship pole position in four races ahead of this weekend's penultimate round in Shanghai.
Pole sitters Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, Toyota Gazoo Racing
JEP / Motorsport Images
The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid came from behind the two Porsches courtesy of the fastest lap of the session from Kamui Kobayashi during the second runs.
Teammate Mike Conway had trailed Nick Tandy and Brendon Hartley in the two 919 Hybrids after the first runs.
But Kobayashi's 1m42.526s, which eclipsed Tandy's best from the first runs by fourth tenths, leapfrogged the Toyota ahead of the two German cars to give Toyota its first WEC pole since the Nurburgring round in July.
Conway and Kobayashi ended up on a 1m42.832s average, more than four tenths up on Tandy and Lotterer's 1m43.272s.
Kobayashi said: "The lap was not perfect, actually. I never had new tyres up to qualifying and it was quite difficult to adjust."
Conway added: "We've topped every session so far, so we rolled out with a good car. I felt I left a couple of tenths on the table, so I was expecting Kamui to go out and go quicker."
Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson took third spot in the #8 Toyota on 1m43.445s.
Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber ended up fourth just four hundredths behind in the second Porsche after the latter spun to the detriment of his tyres on his warm-up lap.
LMP2 pole went to Bruno Senna and Julien Canal in the best of the Rebellion Oreca 07s.
Senna posted the fastest P2 lap of a session with a 1m48.509s, which Canal followed up on with a 1m49.926s to give the car a 1m49.217s average.
That put them just over two seconds up on the G-Drive Oreca qualified by P2 debutant Nico Muller and Leo Roussel.
The second Rebellion car was third in the hands of Nelson Piquet Jr and David Heinemeier Hansson, while the championship-leading Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca ended up fourth in the hands of Oliver Jarvis and Thomas Laurent.
Aston claims GTE pole
Reigning champions Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim took a first GTE Pro pole of the season in their Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Sorensen had trailed Michael Christensen in the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs after the first runs, but Thiim went seven tenths faster than Kevin Estre to overhaul the German car.
The Danish duo ended up on 1m59.697s average, which put them just over two tenths up on the Porsche pairings 1m59.916s.
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi were three tenths behind on aggregate in their AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.
The two Ganassi Ford GTs ended up in fourth and fifth positions.
Harry Tincknell stayed out for a second lap in the #67 car he shared with Andy Priaulx to move ahead of the sister Ford of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke.
Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana took a sixth GTE Am pole of the year aboard their Aston Martin.
The one point on offer moved them and teammate Mathias Lauda into the joint points lead with the Dempsey-Proton Porsche trio Matteo Cairoli, Marvin Dienst and Christian Ried.
LMP results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'42.832 | |
2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.272 | 0.440 |
3 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.445 | 0.613 |
4 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.497 | 0.665 |
5 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.217 | 6.385 |
6 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Leo Roussel Nico Müller |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.472 | 6.640 |
7 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.694 | 6.862 |
8 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.743 | 6.911 |
9 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'49.883 | 7.051 |
10 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.417 | 7.585 |
11 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.727 | 7.895 |
12 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.077 | 8.245 |
13 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.171 | 8.339 |
GTE results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.697 | |
2 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.916 | 0.219 |
3 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.247 | 0.550 |
4 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.299 | 0.602 |
5 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.332 | 0.635 |
6 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.754 | 1.057 |
7 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'00.783 | 1.086 |
8 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.141 | 1.444 |
9 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'02.357 | 2.660 |
10 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'02.765 | 3.068 |
11 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'03.062 | 3.365 |
12 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'03.495 | 3.798 |
13 | 86 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Ben Barker Nick Foster |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'17.037 | 17.340 |
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