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USA
Qualifying report

Shanghai WEC: Rebellion takes first-ever outright pole

Rebellion Racing scored its first-ever outright FIA World Endurance Championship pole in qualifying at Shanghai, as the Toyotas ended up slowest of the LMP1s.

Watch: FIA WEC: 4 Hours of Shanghai - qualifying highlights

Gustavo Menezes and Bruno Senna set a combined average of 1m45.892s aboard the solo Rebellion R-13 to beat the two Team LNT Ginettas to the top spot.

It marks the first time a Toyota has failed to score pole in the WEC since Porsche's final LMP1 pole in the 2017 Bahrain 6 Hours.

Menezes led the way during the opening runs with a 1m46.006s before Senna posted the fastest time of the session with a 1m45.778s to give them a 1m45.892s average. 

Senna said: "For the conditions it felt the car was gripping better [than in free practice], but I felt that I still left something on the track today." 

The #6 Ginetta bagged a spot on the front row ahead of the sister #5 car courtesy of Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson, who trailed the Rebellion by exactly 1.2 seconds.

Robertson was third fastest after the first runs with a 1m46.757s, while Simpson managed a 1m47.427s. 

The second of the Ginettas driven by Egor Orudzhev and Ben Hanley ended up third, less than two hundredths behind their teammates.

Orudzhev set a 1m47.368s before Hanley set a 1m46.850s to give them a 1m47.109s average.

Toyota's top qualifier was the #7 TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, 1.3s off the pace, ahead of the #8 car of Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

Cool Racing Oreca duo Nicolas Lapierre and Antonin Borga topped the LMP2 times with a best time of 1m48.649s, a tenth up on the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca.

The United Autosports ORECA took third in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson. 

In GTE Pro, Porsche secured pole with defending champions Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen by a scant margin of just 0.018s ahead of the two works Aston Martins.

Nicki Thiim topped the times after the first runs with a 1m59.708s before Marco Sorensen went three tenths faster with a 1m59.486s on the same set of tyres. 

That gave them a 1m59.597s, which was just one hundredth up on the sister car of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn. 

The two Ferrari 488 GTE Evos took fourth and fifth positions, the 1m59.687s average from James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi putting them four tenths up on the sister car of Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina. 

Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti ensured a sweep of poles for Porsche by taking the top spot in GTE Am for the Project 1 squad.

Qualifying and the full 4 Hours of Shanghai will be shown live on Motorsport.tv. Check times here.

Prototype results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 1 Brazil Bruno Senna
United States Gustavo Menezes
France Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'45.892
2 6 United Kingdom Charles Robertson
United Kingdom Michael Simpson
United Kingdom Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'47.092 1.200
3 5 United Kingdom Jordan King
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'47.109 1.217
4 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'47.235 1.343
5 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'48.180 2.288
6 42 France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.649 2.757
7 37 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.775 2.883
8 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.972 3.080
9 33 United States Mark Patterson
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.245 3.353
10 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.739 3.847
11 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'50.496 4.604
12 36 France Thomas Laurent
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'50.941 5.049
13 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.431 2.539

GTE results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'59.579
2 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'59.597 0.018
3 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'59.607 0.028
4 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'59.687 0.108
5 71 Italy Davide Rigon
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'00.067 0.488
6 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'00.224 0.645
7 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'00.824 1.245
8 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.528 1.949
9 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'01.655 2.076
10 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'02.192 2.613
11 57 United States Ben Keating
Netherlands Larry ten Voorde
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.228 2.649
12 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.404 2.825
13 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Japan Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.602 3.023
14 88 Italy Angelo Negro
New Zealand Will Bamber
Austria Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.714 3.135
15 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.978 3.399
16 83 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.001 3.422
17 78 Monaco Philippe Prette
Monaco Louis Prette
France Vincent Abril
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'03.086 3.507
18 62 United Kingdom Bonamy Grimes
United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.239 3.660

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