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Silverstone WEC: Benoit Treluyer beats Allan McNish to Silverstone pole

Benoit Treluyer edged out Allan McNish by the narrowest of margins as Audi captured a one-two in qualifying for the Silverstone 6 Hours

Both drivers had pitted for fresh rubber in the final five minutes, and found instant improvements as a result.

It was McNish who made the first move in the #2 R18 ultra, the Briton dropping down to a 1m43.887s with three minutes of the session to run.

Treluyer in the R18 e-tron was yet to come round however, and when he did it was the #1 car that headed the timesheets with a 1m43.663s.

McNish tried to respond as the flag flew, but while he did improve he fell desperately short, missing out on pole position by just one hundredth of a second.

Toyota had been involved in the pole fight until Audi's late rally, but under the guidance of Nicolas Lapierre the sole TS030 Hybrid nevertheless qualified third, seven tenths down on the benchmark time.

Both Lapierre and Treluyer also had wild moments - the former narrowly avoiding contact with Pierre Ragues as he dived into the pits, and the latter running wide and off-track early on.

Danny Watts was the top privateer LMP1 driver, finishing fourth in the #21 Strakka HPD.

LMP2 was similarly frantic, with the lead changing hands several times in the final minutes.

Nicolas Minassian held top spot in the #38 Jota Nissan-Zytek with 60 seconds to run, but eventually wound up third.

Stephane Sarrazin in the Starworks HPD was the first to demote him, but found himself similarly pushed down the order when Alex Brundle - who had spun earlier in the session - came around in a 1m49.964s to earn class pole for the #42 Greaves Nissan squad.

GT qualifying, run before the LMP1 session, built to a dramatic crescendo as track conditions steadily improved.

With just three minutes to run slick tyres finally became the preferable option, as evidence when James Walker flew to a 2m12.326s - around two second faster than anyone else - in the #66 JMW Ferrari he shares with Jonny Cocker.

Walker then spun on his final lap while trying to better his own benchmark, and was therefore unable to respond when, as the chequered flag flew, Richard Lietz put the #77 Felbermayr Porsche top.

Gianmaria Bruni claimed third in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, some way ahead of the Aston Martin Vantage and sister #71 458.

There was such a gap, in fact, that the #97 Vantage was not Aston Martin's top representative - that honour instead falling to the #98 GTE Am car driven by Stuart Hall and Roald Goethe.

Hall, taking over for qualifying, did enough to edge out Felbermayr's #88 Am Porsche of Christian Ried/Gianluca Roda/Paolo Ruberti.

Pos  Cl     Drivers                                Team/Car                Time
 1.  P1     Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer              Audi                    1m43.663s
 2.  P1     Kristensen/McNish                      Audi                    1m43.673s
 3.  P1     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima                 Toyota                  1m44.411s
 4.  P1     Leventis/Watts/Kane                    Strakka HPD             1m46.160s
 5.  P1     Prost/Jani                             Rebellion Lola-Toyota   1m46.207s
 6.  P1     Belicchi/Primat                        Rebellion Lola-Toyota   1m46.234s
 7.  P1     Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck              JRM HPD                 1m46.758s
 8.  P2     Ordonez/Brundle/Brundle                Greaves Zytek-Nissan    1m49.964s
 9.  P2     Potolicchio/Dalziel/Sarrazin           Starworks HPD           1m49.997s
10.  P2     Martin/Charouz/Graves                  ADR-Delta ORECA-Nissan  1m50.129s
11.  P2     Dolan/Hancock/Minassian                Jota Zytek-Nissan       1m50.165s
12.  P2     Firth/Hughes/Hartley                   Murphy ORECA-Nissan     1m50.250s
13.  P2     Mailleux/Lombard/Tresson               Signatech ORECA-Nissan  1m50.624s
14.  P2     Liuzzi/Rossiter/Weeda                  Lotus Lola-Lotus        1m50.688s
15.  P2     Perez Companc/Ayari/Kaffer             Pecom ORECA-Nissan      1m50.775s
16.  P2     Heinemeier Hansson/Baguette/Kraihamer  OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m50.851s
17.  P2     Sims/Jousse/Jousse                     Status Lola-Judd        1m50.919s
18.  P2     Zugel/Gonzalez/Julian                  Greaves Zytek-Nissan    1m50.993s
19.  P2     Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla                     OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m51.283s
20.  P2     Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov              Signatech ORECA-Nissan  1m51.942s
21.  P2     Holzer/Schultis/Albers                 Lotus Lola-Lotus        1m53.349s
22.  P2     Giroix/Ihara/Deletraz                  Gulf Lola-Nissan        1m54.476s
23.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                             Felbermayr Porsche      2m09.564s
24.  GTE P  Walker/Cocker                          JMW Ferrari             2m10.018s
25.  GTE P  Fisichella/Bruni                       AF Ferrari              2m10.481s
26.  GTE A  Goethe/Hall                            Aston Martin            2m12.525s
27.  GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti                      Felbermayr Porsche      2m12.965s
28.  GTE P  Fernandez/Mucke/Turner                 Aston Martin            2m14.150s
29.  GTE P  Bertolini/Beretta                      AF Ferrari              2m15.153s
30.  GTE A  Perazzini/Cioci/Griffin                AF Ferrari              2m15.491s
31.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo                   Krohn Ferrari           2m15.608s
32.  GTE A  Camathias/Palttala/Daniels             JWA Porsche             2m16.466s
33.  GTE A  Adam/Howard/White                      Aston Martin            2m16.717s
34.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees                  Larbre Corvette         2m16.907s
35.  GTE A  Belloc/Bourret/Gibon                   Larbre Corvette         2m17.261s

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