Nurburgring WEC: Audi locks out front row ahead of Porsche

Lotterer and Fassler, who are competing without usual co-pilot Benoit Treluyer this weekend, set an average time of 1m39.444s to take their second pole position of the season.

It was the sister #8 R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas di Grassi that set the quickest time of the session, a 1m38.777s, but Oliver Jarvis couldn’t match the pace of Lotterer early in the session.

Jarvis, taking over from di Grassi in the final minutes, also suffered a spin at the NGK chicane in the dying stages as he looked to improve his time.

That meant that the average time for the #8 car fell short of the #7 by 0.266s, despite Fassler’s failure to improve on the 1m39.239s set by Lotterer.

Porsche occupies the second row, with the #1 car of Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard setting an average time of 1m39.861s.

Like Jarvis, Webber was caught out at the NGK chicane while on course to set a new fastest time late in the session, misjudging his braking and cutting the corner.

The sister #2 919 Hybrid of Marc Lieb and Neel Jani was fourth fastest, 0.032s back on the #1.

Toyota was unable to keep pace with its German rivals in the mixed conditions, ending up fifth and sixth on the grid.

The fifth-placed #6 TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarrazin ended up 1.195s down on the best of the Audis, but 0.019s up on the #5 car of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.

Rebellion’s #13 car came out on top in the LMP1-L battle, 6.638s off the leading pace.

In LMP2, Rene Rast ensured the #26 G-Drive Oreca he shares with Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle will start from class pole, Rast and Rusinov setting a combined time of 1m48.985s.

Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi took the #36 Signatech Alpine to second in class, 0.742s behind the G-Drive car and a scant 0.035s clear of the third-placed #42 Strakka Gibson, piloted by Jonny Kane and team newcomer Lewis Williamson.

Aston Martin tops GTE session

The GTE Pro qualifying battle was won by Aston Martin, with the #95 duo of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson beating the best of the Fords – the #66 of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla – by 0.247s.

Thiim left it late to clinch the pole with a best time of 1m59.033s when the track was at its driest, although the quickest time in the session came courtesy of Gianmaria Bruni in the #51 Ferrari.

But, despite Bruni’s late effort of 1m58.548s, combined with James Calado’s time it was only enough for fourth in class, 0.800s off the pace, and behind the #97 Aston Martin.

The sister #71 Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon struggled badly on the wrong tyres, and starts last of the GTE Pro cars and behind a number of GTE Am cars.

Topping the Am division was the #88 Porsche of Pat Long and Khaled Al-Qubaisi, who overcame the #78 duo of Wolf Henzler and Joel Camathias by only 0.186s.

LMP qualifying times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Andre Lotterer   Marcel Fassler	Audi R18	LMP1	1'39.444
2	8	Lucas di Grassi   Loic Duval   Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18	LMP1	1'39.710	0.266
3	1	Mark Webber   Timo Bernhard   Brendon Hartley	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.861	0.417
4	2	Romain Dumas   Neel Jani   Marc Lieb	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.893	0.449
5	6	Stéphane Sarrazin   Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'40.639	1.195
6	5	Anthony Davidson   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'40.748	1.304
7	13	Alexandre Imperatori   Dominik Kraihamer   Matheo Tuscher	Rebellion R-One	LMP1	1'46.081	6.637
8	4	Simon Trummer   Oliver Webb   Pierre Kaffer	CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'46.907	7.463
9	12	Nick Heidfeld   Nicolas Prost   Mathias Beche	Rebellion R-One	LMP1	1'47.026	7.582
10	26	Roman Rusinov   René Rast   Alex Brundle	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'48.984	9.540
11	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Gustavo Menezes   Stéphane Richelmi	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'49.727	10.283
12	42	Nick Leventis   Jonny Kane   Lewis Williamson	Gibson 015S	LMP2	1'49.762	10.318
13	43	Bruno Senna   Ricardo Gonzalez   Filipe Albuquerque	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'50.105	10.661
14	44	Antonio Pizzonia   Matthew Howson   Tor Graves	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'50.372	10.928
15	27	Maurizio Mediani   David Markozov   Nicolas Minassian	BR01	LMP2	1'50.948	11.504
16	31	Pipo Derani   Ryan Dalziel   Chris Cumming	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'51.194	11.750
17	45	Roberto Merhi   Richard Bradley   Matthew Rao	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'51.294	11.850
18	37	Vitaly Petrov   Viktor Shaytar   Kirill Ladygin	BR01	LMP2	1'51.667	12.223
19	35	Nelson Panciatici   Ho-Pin Tung   David Cheng	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'52.506	13.062
20	30	Scott Sharp   Ed Brown   Johannes van Overbeek	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'56.462	17.018

GTE qualifying times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	2'01.712
2	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'01.959	0.247
3	97	Darren Turner   Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	2'02.220	0.508
4	51	Gianmaria Bruni   James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'02.512	0.800
5	67	Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx   Marino Franchitti	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'03.256	1.544
6	77	Richard Lietz   Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR (2016)	LMGTE PRO	2'03.681	1.969
7	88	David Heinemeier Hansson  Patrick Long   Khaled Al Qubaisi	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'06.011	4.299
8	78	Christian Ried   Wolf Henzler   Joel Camathias	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'06.197	4.485
9	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	2'06.372	4.660
10	83	François Perrodo   Emmanuel Collard   Rui Aguas	Ferrari F458 Italia	LMGTE AM	2'06.589	4.877
11	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'06.745	5.033
12	50	Paolo Ruberti   Pierre Ragues   Yutaka Yamagishi	Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06	LMGTE AM	2'09.127	7.415
13	86	Michael Wainwright   Adam Carroll   Ben Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'09.820	8.108