Shanghai WEC: Porsche survives track limits scare for pole
Porsche secured pole position for the WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai, as the combined efforts of Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber were enough for the top spot despite a track limits scare.
Polesitters #1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
Porsche Motorsport
The #1 919 Hybrid of Hartley was the quickest car after the first runs, the New Zealander setting a benchmark of 1m44.747s to go two tenths clear of the opposition.
However, this laptime was soon deleted as Hartley exceeded track limits exiting the final corner, forcing him to take over from Webber again once the Australian had set his laptime.
With Webber posting a 1m44.618s, Hartley went even faster at the end of the session with a 1m44.307s, which together with his teammate's time produced an average of 1m44.462s.
That was a mere 0.060s up on the #5 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, as the Swiss fell just short of dislodging the #1 car on his final lap, having started the car and then taking over again from Nakajima at the end in a bid to improve his time.
Audi made it three different manufacturers in the top three, as Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval took the #8 car to third on the grid, 0.148s off pole.
Fourth was the #6 Toyota of Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin, followed by the #7 Audi of Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler.
Marc Lieb suffered a similar problem to Porsche stablemate Hartley in the #2 entry, having his first laptime deleted for excess fuel consumption. Once back on track after Neel Jani's turn in the car, the German could only do enough for the sixth best average time.
Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori took pole position in the LMP1-L category for Rebellion Racing, five seconds off the pace of the best of the hybrids.
In LMP2, Alex Lynn pulled out the quickest laptime in class behind the wheel of #44 Manor to put the car he shares with Matt Rao and Richard Bradley on pole.
The trio ended up beating the #36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes by 0.157s, with the #30 ESM Ligier of Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist just a further 0.016s back in third.
Ford dominates in GTE
In the GTE-Pro division, Ford swept the front row with the #67 car of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx beating the sister #66 car of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke to class pole.
Priaulx set the fastest time among the first drivers, a 2m01.543s, while Tincknell improved to a 2m01.240s when he took over to give the British duo an average of 2m01.391s.
That was enough to eclipse Pla and Mucke by 0.137s on average times, with the third-placed #95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen a further half a second back in third.
Hit by an overnight reduction in boost pressure, Ferrari struggled to match the pace of its rivals, with Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado ending up fourth in the #51, 0.924s off the pace - with the #71 machine sixth, behind the #97 Aston Martin.
Pole in GTE-Am went to the #98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana, whose average time of 2m04.997s put them 0.337s clear of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo.
Qualifying results - LMP1 & LMP2 class:
Pos | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 9 | 1'44.462 | |
2 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 9 | 1'44.522 | 0.060 |
3 | 8 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 9 | 1'44.610 | 0.148 |
4 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 9 | 1'44.810 | 0.348 |
5 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 8 | 1'44.868 | 0.406 |
6 | 2 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 9 | 1'45.051 | 0.589 |
7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 7 | 1'49.828 | 5.366 |
8 | 44 | Richard Bradley Matthew Rao Alex Lynn |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 8 | 1'54.225 | 9.763 |
9 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'54.382 | 9.920 |
10 | 30 | Sean Gelael Antonio Giovinazzi Tom Blomqvist |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'54.398 | 9.936 |
11 | 26 | Will Stevens Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 8 | 1'54.759 | 10.297 |
12 | 43 | Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'54.845 | 10.383 |
13 | 45 | Mathias Beche Tor Graves Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'54.899 | 10.437 |
14 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'55.754 | 11.292 |
15 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 8 | 1'56.439 | 11.977 |
16 | 35 | Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 9 | 1'57.111 | 12.649 |
Qualifying results - GTE
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.391 | |
2 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.528 | 0.137 |
3 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.040 | 0.649 |
4 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.315 | 0.924 |
5 | 97 | Darren Turner Richie Stanaway |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.432 | 1.041 |
6 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.866 | 1.475 |
7 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.767 | 2.376 |
8 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'04.997 | 3.606 |
9 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 2'05.334 | 3.943 |
10 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'05.466 | 4.075 |
11 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'06.344 | 4.953 |
12 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'07.712 | 6.321 |
13 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Romain Brandela |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 2'07.857 | 6.466 |
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