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