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Edition

Australia
Qualifying report

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

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.#DriversCarClassTimeGap
1 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'42.832  
2 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.272 0.440
3 8 united_kingdom Anthony Davidson 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.445 0.613
4 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'43.497 0.665
5 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.217 6.385
6 26 russia Roman Rusinov 
france Leo Roussel 
switzerland Nico Müller 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.472 6.640
7 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson 
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.694 6.862
8 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.743 6.911
9 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'49.883 7.051
10 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.417 7.585
11 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.727 7.895
12 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.077 8.245
13 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.171 8.339

GTE results:

Pos.#DriversCarClassAvg TimeGap
1 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 1'59.697  
2 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'59.916 0.219
3 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'00.247 0.550
4 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'00.299 0.602
5 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'00.332 0.635
6 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'00.754 1.057
7 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'00.783 1.086
8 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'01.141 1.444
9 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'02.357 2.660
10 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'02.765 3.068
11 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'03.062 3.365
12 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'03.495 3.798
13 86 united_arab_emirates Khaled Al Qubaisi 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
united_kingdom Nick Foster 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'17.037 17.340

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Edition

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