Shanghai WEC: Toyota claims another front row lockout
Toyota swept the top two positions in qualifying for this weekend's Shanghai FIA World Endurance Championship round, seeing off a challenge from top privateer squad Rebellion Racing.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway took pole position at the end of a session in which Toyota came under pressure in qualifying for the first time of the 2018/19 WEC superseason.
They ended up with a 1m42.931s average in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, which was only three tenths up on the #1 Rebellion-Gibson R-13 qualified by Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer.
Kobayashi's first-run time of 1m43.329s edged out teammate Fernando Alonso by three tenths before Conway posted a 1m43.155s to go just two hundredths quicker than Kazuki Nakajima.
Both Kobayashi and Alonso then went again, the Japanese driver going four tenths quicker than his teammate on the way to the fastest time of the session, a 1m42.708s.
That meant Kobayashi and Conway finished with a 1m42.931s average, four tenths up on Alonso and Nakajima's 1m43.139s.
Lotterer also went again on a fresh set of rubber and found seven tenths to improve to a 1m42.869s to lower the #1 Rebellion's average to 1m43.218s.
Kobayashi said: "The track was improving and Mike did a great lap, so I went again, which was important because it was quite tight at the end."
SMP Racing's lead BR Engineering BR1 qualified by Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev took fourth with a 1m43.879s average, three tenths up on the fifth-placed #3 Rebellion of Mathias Beche and Thomas Laurent.
The DragonSpeed BR1 driven by Ben Hanley and Renger van der Zande edged out the second of the AER-engined SMP cars qualified by Jenson Button and Vitaly Petrov for sixth.
The Jackie Chan DC Racing squad took the LMP2 pole with Gabriel Aubry and Ho-Pin Tung.
They ended up on a 1m48.888s average aboard their Jota-run Oreca 07, which put them a quarter of a second up on the sister car qualified by Nabil Jeffri and Jazeman Jaafar.
Nicolas Lapierre set the fastest P2 time of the session in the Signatech Oreca on a 1m48.598s, but Pierre Thiriet ended up more than three seconds slower after a spin.
That dropped them to fourth behind the DragonSpeed Oreca qualified by Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez.
Ford pips BMW to GTE pole
Ford claimed a last-gasp pole position in GTE Pro after Stefan Mucke went out for a second run in the car he shares with Olivier Pla.
The German found over a second with a 1m56.464s lap aboard the #66 Ford GT to snatch pole away from the BMW M8 GTE of Nicky Catsburg and Martin Tomczyk.
The Ford duo ended up on 1m58.627s average, which was two tenths clear of the BMW drivers' 1m58.874s.
Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn took third in the best of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs with a 1m59.000s, which was just three hundredths faster than the lead Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.
Antonio Felix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist ended up fifth in the second MTEK BMW.
The two AF Corse Ferraris took ninth and 10th places, qualifying only ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana claimed their fifth consecutive GTE Am pole position at Shanghai for Aston Martin.
LMP qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Kamui Kobayashi  Mike Conway  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'42.931 | |
| 2 | 8 |  Fernando Alonso  Kazuki Nakajima  Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'43.159 | 0.228 |
| 3 | 1 |  Andre Lotterer  Bruno Senna  Neel Jani |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'43.218 | 0.287 |
| 4 | 17 |  Stéphane Sarrazin  Matevos Isaakyan  Egor Orudzhev |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'43.870 | 0.939 |
| 5 | 3 |  Mathias Beche  Thomas Laurent  Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'44.179 | 1.248 |
| 6 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande  Ben Hanley  James Allen |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'44.612 | 1.681 |
| 7 | 11 |  Jenson Button  Vitaly Petrov  Mikhail Aleshin |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'44.789 | 1.858 |
| 8 | 4 |  Oliver Webb Tom Dillmann James Rossiter |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 1'46.353 | 3.422 |
| 9 | 38 |  Ho-Pin Tung  Stéphane Richelmi  Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'48.888 | 5.957 |
| 10 | 37 |  Nabil Jeffri  Weiron Tan  Jazeman Jaafar |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.138 | 6.207 |
| 11 | 31 | Anthony Davidson  Pastor Maldonado  Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.857 | 6.926 |
| 12 | 36 |  Nicolas Lapierre Pierre Thiriet  Andre Negrao |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'50.206 | 7.275 |
| 13 | 28 |  Loic Duval  François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.006 | 8.075 |
| 14 | 29 |  Giedo van der Garde  Nyck de Vries Frits van Eerd |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 1'51.657 | 8.726 |
| 15 | 50 | Enzo Guibbert Romano Ricci Erwin Creed |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 1'51.925 | 8.994 |
GTE qualifying:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 |  Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.441 | |
| 2 | 66 |  Stefan Mücke  Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.464 | 0.023 |
| 3 | 97 |  Maxime Martin Alex Lynn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.832 | 0.391 |
| 4 | 92 |  Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.801 | 0.360 |
| 5 | 82 |  Antonio Felix da Costa Tom Blomqvist |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.012 | 0.571 |
| 6 | 95 |  Nicki Thiim Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.144 | 0.703 |
| 7 | 67 | Harry Tincknell  Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.914 | 0.473 |
| 8 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.258 | 0.817 |
| 9 | 51 | James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.401 | 0.960 |
| 10 | 71 |  Sam Bird  Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.359 | 0.918 |
| 11 | 64 | Oliver Gavin  Tommy Milner |
Chevrolet Corvette C7R | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.802 | 1.361 |
| 12 | 98 | Pedro Lamy  Paul Dalla Lana  Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'00.880 | 2.439 |
| 13 | 77 |  Christian Ried  Matt Campbell Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.528 | 3.087 |
| 14 | 54 |  Giancarlo Fisichella  Francesco Castellacci  Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'00.281 | 1.840 |
| 15 | 88 |  Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.128 | 1.687 |
| 16 | 90 | Jonathan Adam  Salih Yoluc  Charles Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'02.020 | 3.579 |
| 17 | 61 |  Matthew Griffin  Mok Weng Sun  Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'00.804 | 2.363 |
| 18 | 56 | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey  Egidio Perfetti |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.357 | 2.916 |
| 19 | 86 |  Michael Wainwright  Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'01.155 | 2.714 |
| 20 | 70 |  Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III Motoaki Ishikawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'01.309 | 2.868 |
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