Fuji WEC: Kobayashi, Lopez lead all-Toyota front row
A track limits violation meant Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi were pipped to pole by Toyota teammates Jose Maria Lopez at this weekend's Fuji FIA World Endurance Championship event.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
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 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments