Silverstone WEC: Toyota takes dominant 1-2 in qualifying

Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway claimed the top spot with a 1m37.304s average to end up nearly three tenths clear of teammates Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson in the sister Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

Fastest time of the session was a 1m36.793s set by Kobayashi during the first runs, on which Conway followed up with a 1m37.816s after his faster first lap was deleted due to a track limits violation.

Nakajima has been nearly nine tenths slower in the second of the two high-downforce Toyotas, but Davidson improved on his teammate's time to reduce the gap to the pole-winning car.

Kobayashi said: "The car was brilliant and I think that was a good lap time, but my teammate did well as well."

The best of the Porsche's low-downforce 919 Hybrids trailed the pole-winning Toyota by 1.311s.

Nick Tandy set the fastest Porsche time with a 1m38.454s, which gave him and Neel Jani third place on the grid with a 1m38.615s average.

That put them four tenths up on the second Porsche in which Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard averaged a 1m39.063s.

Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet took qualifying honours in LMP2 for the G-Drive Racing squad.

Lynn topped the times after the first runs aboard the Russian-entered ORECA-Gibson 07 with a 1m43.412s, which stood as the fastest time in class.

Thiriet followed it up with 1m45.363s, which gave them a 1m44.387s average.

Second place went to the Signatech Alpine ORECA qualified by Matt Rao and Nicolas Lapierre, just under a tenth away from the pole-winning duo in class.

Ford fastest in GTE Pro

British duo Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell claimed pole position for Ford on home ground in GTE Pro.

Priaulx was the only driver in class to dip under 1m56s barrier, his 1m55.858s aboard the #67 Ganassi-run Ford GT from the first runs standing as the session best.

Tincknell followed it up with a 1m56.947s on the same set of tyres to give the car a 1m56.202s average, which put it nearly a second up on the second-placed Ferrari shared by Davide Rigon and Sam Bird.

Rigon was more than a second away from Priaulx on the first runs aboard the factory AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE with a 1m56.905s, the car ending up eight tenths in arrears on the averages.

That put the Ferrari just over a hundredth up on the #95 factory Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Nicky Thiim and Marco Sorensen.

The reigning champions were in turn a tenth up on the second Ganassi Ford driven by Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla.

The two new mid-engined Porsche 911 RSRs qualified at the back of the pack in seventh and eighth positions, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz ending up less than a tenth ahead of teammates Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana took qualifying honours in GTE Am for Aston Martin.

LMP1/LMP2 qualifying results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'37.304
2	Anthony Davidson   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'37.593	0.289
3	Andre Lotterer   Neel Jani   Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'38.615	1.311
4	Timo Bernhard   Brendon Hartley   Earl Bamber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.063	1.759
5	Roman Rusinov   Pierre Thiriet   Alex Lynn	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'44.387	7.083
6	Nicolas Lapierre   Gustavo Menezes   Matt Rao	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'44.433	7.129
7	Oliver Jarvis   Ho-Pin Tung   Thomas Laurent	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'44.591	7.287
8	Bruno Senna   Julien Canal   Nicolas Prost	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.194	7.890
9	Oliver Webb   Dominik Kraihamer   James Rossiter	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'45.235	7.931
10	Nelson Piquet Jr.   David Heinemeier Hansson   Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.323	8.019
11	Jean-Eric Vergne   Jonathan Hirschi   Tor Graves	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.102	8.798
12	François Perrodo   Emmanuel Collard   Matthieu Vaxivière	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.183	8.879
13	Vitaly Petrov   Simon Trummer   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.494	9.190
14	David Cheng   Tristan Gommendy   Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.250	9.946

LMGTE qualifying results

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Time1	Time2	Avg Time	Gap
1	Pipo Derani   Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'56.546	2'02.434	1'56.202
2	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'57.117	1'59.433	1'57.011	0.809
3	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim   Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	1'57.245	2'08.610	1'57.117	0.915
4	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla   Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'57.277	2'12.620	1'57.269	1.067
5	Darren Turner   Jonathan Adam   Daniel Serra	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	1'57.628	2'06.509	1'57.414	1.212
6	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'57.322	2'02.615	1'57.466	1.264
7	Richard Lietz   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.867	2'02.228	1'58.003	1.801
8	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.036	2'08.240	1'58.066	1.864
9	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	2'00.333	2'15.975	1'59.562	3.360
10	Francesco Castellacci   Miguel Molina   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'02.121	2'08.476	2'00.608	4.406
11	Christian Ried   Matteo Cairoli   Marvin Dienst	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	2'03.615	2'19.947	2'01.347	5.145
12	Matt Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'04.538	2'04.538	2'01.621	5.419
13	Michael Wainwright   Ben Barker  Nick Foster	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	2'04.709	2'04.709	2'01.925	5.723