Nurburgring WEC: Lotterer and Fassler lead Audi qualifying 1-2
Audi blocked out the top two positions on the grid for Sunday's Nurburgring World Endurance Championship round
Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler took the pole in the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro with a 1m39.444s average, which put them 0.266 seconds up on team-mates Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi.
Lotterer set the fastest on the first runs in the 20-minute aggregate session with a 1m39.239s, which was eight tenths faster than second-placed Mark Webber in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
Jarvis had been only fourth after the first runs after losing his quickest lap to a track limits violation.
A 1m38.777s from di Grassi, the fastest lap of qualifying, leapfrogged the car ahead of the two Porsches to take second position with a 1m39.710s average.
Jarvis returned to the cockpit and was on course to take pole when it started to rain and he spun at the chicane.
Lotterer said: "We targeted doing three laps and it went according to plan.
"We had a good car - a good tool to do something."
Webber and Timo Bernhard took third with a 1m39.861s average, which put them just three hundredths up on team-mates Marc Lieb and Neel Jani.
Both Webber and Lieb were given second runs in their respective cars, but were unable to improve.
The best Toyota was eight-tenths down in the hands of Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi.
They ended up with a 1m40.639s average, which eclipsed that of team-mates Stebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson by just over a tenth.
Rebellion Racing took privateer LMP1 honours with Alexandre Imperatori and Dominik Kraihamer.
G-Drive Racing maintained its stranglehold on the LMP2 pole position.
Roman Rusinov was fifth after the first runs in the Jota-run ORECA-Nissan 05, before Rast set a time nearly a second faster than any of his class rivals to claim the pole by eight tenths with a 1m48.984s average.
Stephane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes took second in the Sigantech Alpine ORECA-Nissan with a 1m49.727s average.
Aston Martin took its first GTE Pro pole of the season with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen.
Thiim snatched pole in the #95 Vantage GTE after the chequered flag had fallen on his second run in the car.
He had been fastest on intermediates on his first run before it was decided to end Sorensen's run on inters early and get Thiim back out on track on slicks.
Their 2m01.959s average put them 0.247s up on the 2m01.959s set by Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs.
Mucke, who had taken his first run on wet tyres, also returned to the track for a second go on slick tyres.
Patrick Long and Khaled Al Qubaisi claimed GTE Am pole aboard their Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.
QUALIFYING TIMES
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | M.Fassler, A.Lotterer | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1m39.444s | - |
2 | LMP1 | L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1m39.710s | 0.266s |
3 | LMP1 | T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1m39.861s | 0.417s |
4 | LMP1 | R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1m39.893s | 0.449s |
5 | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1m40.639s | 1.195s |
6 | LMP1 | A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1m40.748s | 1.304s |
7 | LMP1 | M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1m46.081s | 6.637s |
8 | LMP1 | S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer | ByKOLLES Racing Team | CLM/AER | 1m46.907s | 7.463s |
9 | LMP1 | N.Prost, N.Heidfeld, M.Beche | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1m47.026s | 7.582s |
10 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.Brundle | G-Drive Racing | ORECA/Nissan | 1m48.984s | 9.540s |
11 | LMP2 | G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi | Signatech Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 1m49.727s | 10.283s |
12 | LMP2 | N.Leventis, L.Williamson, J.Kane | Strakka Racing | Gibson/Nissan | 1m49.762s | 10.318s |
13 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque | RGR Sport by Morand | Ligier/Nissan | 1m50.105s | 10.661s |
14 | LMP2 | T.Graves, A.Pizzonia, M.Howson | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1m50.372s | 10.928s |
15 | LMP2 | N.Minassian, M.Mediani | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1m50.948s | 11.504s |
16 | LMP2 | R.Dalziel, P.Derani, C.Cumming | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1m51.194s | 11.750s |
17 | LMP2 | M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1m51.294s | 11.850s |
18 | LMP2 | V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1m51.667s | 12.223s |
19 | LMP2 | D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici | Baxi DC Racing Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 1m52.506s | 13.062s |
20 | LMP2 | S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1m56.462s | 17.018s |
21 | GTE Pro | N.Thiim, M.Sorensen | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2m01.712s | 22.268s |
22 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 2m01.959s | 22.515s |
23 | GTE Pro | R.Stanaway, D.Turner | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2m02.220s | 22.776s |
24 | GTE Pro | G.Bruni, J.Calado | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2m02.512s | 23.068s |
25 | GTE Pro | M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 2m03.256s | 23.812s |
26 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, M.Christensen | Dempsey Racing - Proton | Porsche | 2m03.681s | 24.237s |
27 | GTE Am | K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.Long | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche | 2m06.011s | 26.567s |
28 | GTE Am | C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias | KCMG | Porsche | 2m06.197s | 26.753s |
29 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2m06.372s | 26.928s |
30 | GTE Am | F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2m06.589s | 27.145s |
31 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2m06.745s | 27.301s |
32 | GTE Am | Y.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, P.Ruberti | Larbre Competition | Chevrolet | 2m09.127s | 29.683s |
33 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 2m09.820s | 30.376s |
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