Jani grabs COTA pole with last-ditch flyer for Porsche lockout

The No.17 Porsche of Brendon Hartley/Timo Bernhard/Mark Webber had been dominating the session until a last-minute flyer from Neel Jani wrested away top spot, in the car he shares with Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas.

Hartley set the early pace on 1m46.625s, ahead of the Audis of Andre Lotterer (1m47.007s) and Oliver Jarvis (1m47.456s). Jani was uncharacteristically off the pace in fourth due to a hybrid boost failure in the No.18 Porsche on a 1m48.422s.

Loic Duval took over the No.8 car and leapfrogged the sister Audi to second on 1m47.621s, but Lieb quickly restored the Porsche front-row lockout with 1m46.405s.

Hartley’s and Bernhard’s combined times were over a second clear of Jani/Lieb at that point – but Jani got back into the No.18 and rocked an amazing 1m46.018s to give the car pole by 0.164s.

The Duval/Jarvis/Lucas di Grassi Audi will start third, ahead of the Lotterer/Treluyer/ Marcel Fassler championship-leading R18.

The Toyotas will start from the third row, with the No.1 car outpacing No.2 just over a tenth.

The session was red flagged after three minutes to retrieve the No.47 KCMG Oreca, which had stopped just after the pitlane exit with Matt Howson at the wheel.

It then went on to top the LMP2 times, but is under investigation by stewards. The No.26 G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird/Julien Canal/Roman Rusinov was second fastest.

GT class qualifying battles

The No.99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 will start on LMGTE Pro courtesy of Fernando Rees and Richie Stanaway, ahead of the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen, which had set the early pace in the session.

The No.97 Aston of Darren Turner and Jonny Adam will start third, ahead of No.95 Aston and No.92 Porsche.

There was rejoicing in the Dempsey-Proton Racing garage, as the No.77 Porsche of Patrick Long, Marco Seefried and Patrick Dempsey scored its first LMGTE Am pole of the season.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	No.	Drivers	Car	Time	Gap
1	18	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche	1'46.211
2	17	Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley	Porsche	1'46.375	0.164
3	8	Lucas di Grassi Loïc Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi	1'47.538	1.327
4	7	Marcel Fassler Andre Lotterer Benoit Treluyer	Audi	1'47.898	1.687
5	1	Anthony Davidson Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima	Toyota	1'48.990	2.779
6	2	Alexander Wurz Stephane Sarrazin Mike Conway	Toyota	1'49.176	2.965
7	12	Nicolas Prost Mathias Beche Nick Heidfeld	Rebellion/AER	1'53.950	7.739
8	13	Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Daniel Abt	Rebellion/AER	1'54.506	8.295
9	4	Simon Trummer Pierre Kaffer	CLM/AER	1'55.794	9.583
10	26	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird	Ligier/Nissan	1'57.148	10.937
11	28	Gustavo Yacaman Luis Derani Ricardo Gonzalez	Ligier/Nissan	1'57.474	11.263
12	30	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Hansson	Ligier/HPD	1'57.621	11.410
13	43	Pierre Ragues Oliver Webb Archie Hamilton	Morgan/SARD	1'58.109	11.898
14	42	Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane	Gibson/Nissan	1'59.749	13.538
15	31	Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Jon Fogarty	Ligier/HPD	2'01.480	15.269
16	36	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire	Alpine/Nissan	1'57.860	11.649
17	47	Matt Howson Richard Bradley Nicolas Lapierre	ORECA/Nissan	1'56.834	10.623*
18	99	Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin	2'05.872	19.661
19	91	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche	2'06.134	19.923
20	97	Darren Turner Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin	2'06.272	20.061
21	95	Marco Sorensen Christopher Nygaard	Aston Martin	2'06.294	20.083
22	92	Patrick Pilet Frederic Makowiecki	Porsche	2'06.363	20.152
23	51	Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander	Ferrari	2'06.786	20.575
24	71	Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari	2'06.975	20.764
25	77	Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Porsche	2'08.085	21.874
26	96	Francesco Castellacci Benny Simonsen Stuart Hall	Aston Martin	2'08.264	22.053
27	83	Francois Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas	Ferrari	2'08.332	22.121
28	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin	2'08.440	22.229
29	72	Viktor Shaitar Andrea Bertolini Aleksey Basov	Ferrari	2'08.442	22.231
30	50	Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen	Chevrolet	2'08.802	22.591
31	88	Christian Ried Khalid Al Qubaisi Earl Bamber	Porsche	no time	-