Qualifying report

WEC Silverstone

Silverstone WEC: Toyota sees off Rebellion for pole

Toyota saw off its privateer LMP1 opposition to sweep the front row of the grid for this weekend's Silverstone FIA World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser.

Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins

Edited: Sep 1, 2019, 9:01 AM

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#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway posted an average time of 1m36.015s in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid during Saturday's 20-minute qualifying session, beating the sister #8 car driven by Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima by exactly three tenths of a second.

The best of the privateers was the #1 Rebellion R-13 a further two tenths back in the hands of Bruno Senna and Gustavo Menezes.

Conway paid credit to the Toyota team after qualifying, revealing that the car had been rebuilt a new monocoque overnight.

The car he and Kobayashi share with Jose Maria Lopez was found to have sustained chassis damage after the Japanese driver spun across the kerbs at Becketts as the result of minor contact with one of the Rebellions in second practice.

"Thanks to the team for their work overnight," said Conway. "All in all it was a decent lap from me and then a great lap from Kamui to secure the pole."

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Conway headed the times after the first runs with a 1m36.038s, before Kobayashi set the fast time of the session with a 1m35.992s. That gave them a 1m36.015s average, which compared with the 1m36.315s from Nakajima and Buemi.

Menezes set the fastest time by a privateer with the 1m36.521s, which shaded Senna's best by just seven hundredths. 

They ended up on a 1m36.560s average, which was half a second quicker than the 1m37.024s from team-mates Nathanael Berthon and Pipo Derani in the sister Rebellion.

The two Ginetta G60-LT-P1s ended up fifth and sixth. Mike Simpson and Oliver Jarvis were only two tenths behind the second Rebellion with a 1m37.220s average in the #6 car.

Racing Team Nederland drivers Giedo van der Garde and Job van Uitert look pole in LMP2 aboard their TDS Racing-run Oreca on Michelin tyres. 

Their 1m40.948s average put them seven tenths up on United Autosports Oreca drivers Paul di Resta and Phil Hanson, while the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry was the first Goodyear runner in third place.

Ferrari takes 1-2 in GTE Pro

Ferrari blocked out the top two positions in GTE Pro, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi taking the pole from team-mates Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina by a shade over a tenth. 

Calado was just behind Molina after the first runs before Pier Guidi set the fastest lap of the GTE session, which gave them a 1m54.171s average in their AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. That compared with Rigon and Molina's 1m54.302s.

Alex Lynn and and Maxime Martin took third for Aston Martin with a 1m54.992s average in their Vantage GTE.

Gianmaria Bruni, who had a spin at Abbey halfway through the session as the result of a puncture, and Richard Lietz took fourth in the second-generation Porsche 911 RSR on 1m55.067s. 

Reigning champions Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen brought up the rear of the six-car GTE Pro field in their Porsche behind the second of the Astons.

Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc took GTE Am qualifying honours in the TF Sport Aston. 

The #57 Project 1 Porsche did not take part in qualifying after a suffering an apparent engine issue in third practice earlier in the day.

The WEC 4 Hours of Silverstone will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more coverage details.

Prototype results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'36.015 2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'36.315 0.30 3 1 Brazil Bruno Senna
United States Gustavo Menezes
France Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'36.560 0.545 4 3 France Nathanael Berthon
Brazil Pipo Derani
France Loic Duval
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'37.024 1.009 5 6 United Kingdom Michael Simpson
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'37.220 1.205 6 5 United Kingdom Charles Robertson
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'37.464 1.449 7 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.948 4.933 8 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'41.683 5.668 9 37 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'41.976 5.961 10 42 France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.017 6.002 11 36 France Thomas Laurent
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'42.216 6.201 12 33 United States Mark Patterson
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.414 6.399 13 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.885 6.870 14 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'43.363 7.348 View full results

GTE qualifying:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'54.171 2 71 Italy Davide Rigon
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'54.302 0.131 3 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'54.992 0.821 4 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'55.067 0.896 5 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'55.149 0.978 6 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'55.493 1.322 7 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'56.034 1.863 8 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Germany David Kolkmann
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'56.371 2.20 9 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'56.469 2.298 10 83 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'56.489 2.318 11 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'56.742 2.571 12 77 Germany Christian Ried
Australia Matt Campbell
Italy Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.351 3.180 13 88 Austria Thomas Preining
Italy Gianluca Giraudi
Mexico Ricardo Sanchez
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'57.507 3.336 14 62 United Kingdom Bonamy Grimes
United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'57.934 3.763 15 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'58.199 4.028 16 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Japan Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'58.336 4.165 17 57 United States Ben Keating
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM View full results

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