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Spa WEC: #7 Toyota beats sister car to pole

Toyota's #7 crew secured pole position for this weekend's Spa FIA World Endurance Championship round, beating the points-leading #8 car by almost half a second.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

JEP / Motorsport Images

Sharing the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway both outpaced their opposite numbers in the #8 machine, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.

Kobayashi posted a 1m53.812s to end up half a second quicker than Nakajima in the #8 car, before Conway went slightly faster with a 1m53.683s to end up a similar margin ahead of Buemi. 

That gave the #7 Toyota a 1m53.747s average, which compared with the #8 entry's 1m54.243s. A late rain shower and red flag - caused by the ByKolles stopping along the start/finish straight - denied the #8 crew a chance to improve its time in the closing minutes.

Conway said: "I got a good lap, and it's always rewarding when you do that.

"It's good to get the point for fastest lap, but we know the race tomorrow is going to be hard with the poor weather that has been forecast, so it will be all about making the right calls."

The SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 qualified by Sergey Sirotkin and Egor Orudzhev ended up best of the rest on a 1m54.711s average, just under one second off pole. 

They were nine tenths up on the best of the Rebellion R-13s in fourth place, Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent ending up on 1m55.640s.

The second of the AER-engined BR1s was a further four tenths back in the hands of team newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne and Vitaly Petrov. 

Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer were less than one hundredth of a second behind in sixth position aboard the second of the Rebellions. 

Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert claimed the LMP2 pole position in G-Drive Racing's Aurus-badged Oreca.

Van Uitert had been fourth after the first runs, before Vergne posted the fastest P2 time of the 25-minute session for the prototypes for a 2m00.674s average and the pole. 

Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi were just over half a second in arrears in the best of the Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas on 2m01.225s. 

That was three tenths up on the sister Jota Sport-run car in which Will Stevens had been fastest after the first runs. 

Ford takes pole in GTE

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell snatched GTE Pro pole for Ford right at the end of their session. 

The #67 Ganassi Ford GT had been fourth after the first runs with a 2m13.571s from Priaulx, but Tincknell briefly moved the car up to second with a 2m12.973s. 

Priaulx was then given a new set of tyres to try to improve on his time before the end of the 25 minutes and found seven tenths with a 2m12.797s.

That gave them a 2m12.285s average, which put them less than a tenth of a second up on the Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn. 

Martin, who had been third after the first runs, had been given another shot after Lynn went three tenths quicker than his Belgian teammate. 

Martin then went quicker still with 2m12.698s, which briefly put them on pole prior to Priaulx's improvement. 

The BMW M8 GTE of Augusto Farfus and Antonio Felix da Costa, who posted the single quickest laps in class, took third and was the fastest of the GTE Pro qualifiers not to go for an additional run. 

They ended up with a 2m12.977s average, just a couple of hundredths behind the Aston. 

The second BMW ended up fourth in the hands of Nicky Catsburg, who was fastest after the first runs, and Martin Tomczyk. 

Porsche, which leads the manufacturers' and drivers' standings, ended up seventh and eighth with its pair of mid-engined 911 RSRs, while two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs brought up the rear of the 10-car field. 

TF Sport Aston Martin claimed a first GTE Am pole with Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc.

Prototype results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'53.747
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
Spain Fernando Alonso
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'54.243 0.496
3 17 France Stéphane Sarrazin
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Russian Federation Sergey Sirotkin
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'54.711 0.964
4 3 France Nathanael Berthon
France Thomas Laurent
United States Gustavo Menezes
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'55.640 1.893
5 11 Russian Federation Mikhail Aleshin
Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'56.018 2.271
6 1 Switzerland Neel Jani
Germany Andre Lotterer
Brazil Bruno Senna
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'56.021 2.274
7 26 Russian Federation Roman Rusinov
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Aurus 01 LMP2 2'00.674 6.927
8 38 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
Monaco Stéphane Richelmi
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'01.225 7.478
9 37 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
United Kingdom Jordan King
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'01.558 7.811
10 31 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Venezuela Pastor Maldonado
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'01.816 8.069
11 36 France Nicolas Lapierre
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Thiriet
Alpine A470 LMP2 2'01.832 8.085
12 4 France Tom Dillmann
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
Italy Paolo Ruberti
ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 2'02.246 8.499
13 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Dallara P217 LMP2 2'03.959 10.212
14 28 France François Perrodo
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.967 11.220
15 50 France Erwin Creed
France Romano Ricci
United States Nicholas Boulle
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 2'06.234 12.487
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 67 Guernsey Andy Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'12.885
2 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'12.952 0.067
3 82 Brazil Augusto Farfus
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'12.977 0.092
4 81 Germany Martin Tomczyk
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'13.313 0.428
5 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'13.341 0.456
6 66 Germany Stefan Mücke
France Olivier Pla
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'13.392 0.507
7 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'13.683 0.798
8 91 Austria Richard Lietz
Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'13.836 0.951
9 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'14.060 1.175
10 71 Italy Davide Rigon
United Kingdom Sam Bird
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'14.182 1.297
11 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
United Kingdom Euan Hankey
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'16.061 3.176
12 88 Italy Gianluca Roda
Italy Giorgio Roda
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'16.171 3.286
13 56 Germany Jörg Bergmeister
United States Patrick Lindsey
Norway Egidio Perfetti
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'16.390 3.505
14 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'17.005 4.120
15 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Austria Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'17.093 4.208
16 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'17.173 4.288
17 61 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Ireland Matthew Griffin
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'17.288 4.403
18 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Germany Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'19.225 6.340
19 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Italy Eddie Cheever III
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM

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