Mexico WEC: Porsche locks out front row, Ferrari on top in GT
Porsche blocked out the front row for the first time over a year in qualifying for this weekend's Mexico City round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard combined to give the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid pole, ahead of team-mates Nick Tandy and Andre Lotterer.
Hartley set the pace during the first runs with a 1m24.459s, which put him three tenths up on Mike Conway in the best of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids.
Lotterer was the fastest of the second batch of drivers with a 1m24.614s, but a 1m24.665s from Bernhard was enough to keep the #2 Porsche at the top of the timesheets.
Their 1m24.562s average was a tenth and a half quicker than the 1m24.710s average of their team-mates.
Hartley said: "It was a tidy lap, but it was close. Our car has been really strong all weekend – we basically haven't changed it since we arrived.
"That's no mean feat given the altitude and shows that the team did a great job."
Toyota’s Jose Maria Lopez ended up a tenth slower than teammate Conway and was given another set of tyres to go again, but he had to abort his lap after being baulked by a LMP2 car.
That left them third, another tenth back on 1m24.802s. Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi qualified the second Toyota fourth, neither driver breaking the 1m25s barrier.
Alpine grabs LMP2 pole
The Signatech Alpine squad took pole with Andre Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre.
Silver-rated driver Negrao was fastest after the opening runs with a 1m32.775s, which Lapierre almost matched with a 1m32.844s.
That gave them a 1m32.809s average, which put them three tenths up on the Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca qualified by Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung.
Julien Canal and Bruno Senna were a further half a second back in third in the best of the Rebellion Orecas.
GTE-Pro pole for Ferrari
Davide Rigon and Sam Bird took a second GTE Pro pole of the season aboard the #71 AF Corse factory Ferrari 488 GTE.
Rigon's 1m39.658s put the car third after he had to abort his first flying lap and go again.
Bird then set the fastest lap of the session with a 1m39.162s to give them an average of 1m32.425s and the class pole.
Nicki Thiim set second fastest time of the 20-minute session in the fastest of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs with a 1m39.270s.
That vaulted the car he shares with Marco Sorensen up from seventh place after the first runs.
Sorensen was given another run but didn't improve, the Danish duo ending up a tenth back on a 1m39.534s average.
The two Ganassi Fords had been first and second after the first runs in the hands of Andy Priaulx and Stefan Mucke, but neither Harry Tincknell and Oliver Pla were able to match the pace of Bird and Thiim.
The Fords ended up third and fourth, two and three tenths down respectively.
Matteo Cairoli and Christian Ried took GTE Am pole in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR. They pipped Aston Martin duo Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana, who were bidding for a fourth class pole of the season, by a tenth.
P1/P2 qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |  Timo Bernhard  Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'24.562 | |
| 2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer  Neel Jani  Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'24.710 | 0.148 |
| 3 | 7 |  Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'24.802 | 0.240 |
| 4 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.378 | 0.816 |
| 5 | 36 |  Nicolas Lapierre  Andre Negrao  Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'32.809 | 8.247 |
| 6 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis  Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.105 | 8.543 |
| 7 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.605 | 9.043 |
| 8 | 26 |  Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Alex Lynn |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.002 | 9.440 |
| 9 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer  Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.051 | 9.489 |
| 10 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr.  David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.122 | 9.560 |
| 11 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.272 | 9.710 |
| 12 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.483 | 9.921 |
| 13 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'35.365 | 10.803 |
GTE qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 71 | Sam Bird  Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.425 | |
| 2 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.534 | 0.109 |
| 3 | 67 | Harry Tincknell  Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.640 | 0.215 |
| 4 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.728 | 0.303 |
| 5 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.851 | 0.426 |
| 6 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.870 | 0.445 |
| 7 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.059 | 0.634 |
| 8 | 91 |  Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.252 | 0.827 |
| 9 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'42.056 | 2.631 |
| 10 | 98 |  Pedro Lamy  Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'42.158 | 2.733 |
| 11 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker  Nick Foster Jr. |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'42.965 | 3.540 |
| 12 | 61 |  Matt Griffin  Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'43.296 | 3.871 |
| 13 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci  Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'44.648 | 5.223 |
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