Photo : Nick Dungan - AdrenalMedia.com
Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, driving the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid, took an excellent pole position for the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji Speedway.
Securing their third pole start of the 2015 season, after another thrilling qualifying session was held in cloudy but dry conditions this afternoon, Bernhard and Webber set a combined average of 1m22.763s to head their pursuers. Webber’s best was the fastest LMP1 lap ever recorded at Fuji – 1m22.639s.
Porsche Team ensured they sealed another 1-2 formation start for the race tomorrow, but it was only confirmed in the final seconds as Marc Lieb took the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid ahead of the No.7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro after a last gasp effort by the German.
Andre Lotterer and then Benoit Treluyer ensured that Audi got close to the Porsches’ times in the 20-minute session, but Lieb’s last minute flyer bettered their average by just 0.011s.
The No.8 Audi Sport Team Joest entry, which was driven by Lucas Di Grassi and Loic Duval will line-up alongside the No.7 car in fourth place with an average time of 1m23.245s. This was despite having to make an early pit stop for some adjustments before a flying lap was posted.
Toyota Racing starts from the third row of the grid with the No.1 Toyota TS 010 HYBRID just shading the No.2 sister car by 0.255s. Sebastien Buemi and local hero Kazuki Nakajima combined to register an average lap time of 1m25.072s.
Daniel Abt and Alexander Imperatori won the in-house Rebellion Racing battle this time, as they claimed the LMP1 privateer pole in the No.13 Rebellion R-One AER.
G-Drive Racing was celebrating a fine 1-2 qualifying effort with the No.26 Ligier-Nissan driven by Sam Bird and Julien Canal sealing a second consecutive pole and a third in total so far in 2015.
After Canal started the session, Bird set some blistering laps to beat the No.28 G-Drive car of Ricardo Rodriguez and Gustavo Yacaman by just over 0.2s. It was the end of a successful day for Bird, who was earlier announced as one of the specially chosen young drivers to take part in the ‘rookie test’ next month. The British racer will drive for Toyota Racing in Bahrain.
A notable third in qualifying was the Team SARD Morand Morgan Evo. Pierre Ragues and Oliver Webb combined to score a best qualifying effort of the season for the Swiss team.
Title leaders KCMG start fourth after Matt Howson and Nick Tandy completed qualifying duties today. A potential attack on the G-Drive Ligier-Nissan cars was curtailed after Tandy spun and brushed the wall after spinning at Turn 6.
A dramatic 20 minute qualifying session for LMGTE ended with a jump for joy by Davide Rigon and James Calado in the AF Corse garage as the Anglo-Italian pairing claimed their debut WEC Pole Position. There were also lots of smiles in the Larbre Competition garage as Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti took their first LMGTE Am pole in 2015 and the first for the team since 2012.
In LMGTE Pro the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari lead the way for most of the session with first Rigon and then Calado at the wheel of the Ferrari 458. The biggest challenge came from the No.51 AF Corse of Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni with Bruni pitting late in the session to take on fresh tyres. However the Italian was still 0.108s behind his British teammate at the chequered flag.
The No.99 Aston Martin Vantage of Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowell was third fastest with a 1m38.540s average time, 0.245 behind the lead Ferrari.
In LMGTE Am it was the No.72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 of Victor Shaytar that was the leading entry early in the session, with the No.98 Aston Martin Vantage of Pedro Lamy in second. Shaytar handed over to Alexsey Basov and Lamy gave the driving duties to Paul Dalla Lana. The No.50 Larbre Competition Corvette was fifth fastest as Roda handed over to his fellow Italian Paolo Ruberti.
However, Ruberti soon punched in a few fast laps to bring the average lap time down to 1m39.901 to move into pole position, with Basov unable to challenge the swift Corvette.** The Russian Ferrari posted an average time of 1m40.128, 0.227 behind the all-Italian pairing.
** Following post-qualifying scrutineering, the lap times of the No.50 Larbre Competition Corvette were cancelled due to non-conformity of the car's fuel cell ventilation valve (Stewards' Decision No.12). The car must now re-pass through scrutineering and, if it is found to conform, it will be able to start the race from the back of the grid.
The sixth round of the 2015 WEC is scheduled to take place at 11.00 local time.
CLICK HERE for the result from Qualifying
CLICK HERE to see the video of the qualifying press conference
