Nurburgring WEC: Toyota beats Porsche in close pole fight

They combined to take Toyota's third WEC pole of the year by just over a tenth from Porsche's new high-downforce version of the latest 919 Hybrid.

Lopez was fastest after the first runs aboard the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID on a 1m38.083s, which Kobayashi followed up on with a 1m38.153s.

That gave them a 1m38.118s average and pole by just over a tenth of a second from Porsche drivers Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard.

Hartley was second fastest initially on a 1m38.292s, while Bernard went a shade quicker on a 1m38.252s to lower their average to 1m38.272s.

Lopez, who has returned to the #7 car after driving Toyota's third entry at last month's Le Mans 24 Hours, said: "It was a good lap, but a bit of a surprise because Porsche had been so strong in free practice.

"It was my first qualifying attempt on quali settings, low fuel and new tyres, so I wasn't expecting to be so competitive."

Hartley and Bernhard ended up just six thousandths quicker on aggregate than the sister Porsche qualified by Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer.

Jani posted a 1m38.671s on his run, before Lotterer set the fastest time of the session with a 1m37.886s.

The second Toyota qualified by Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson was within six tenths of the pole despite Nakajima setting his time on his third lap on the tyres.

G-Drive Racing again took LMP2 qualifying honours with its ORECA-Gibson 07 shared by Ben Hanley and Pierre Thiriet.

Hanley, standing in for Alex Lynn while he races in Formula E in New York, was fastest on the first runs with a 1m44.331s before Thiriet posted a 1m45.671s to give them a 1m45.001s average.

That put them two tenths ahead of the Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA qualified by Thomas Laurent and Oliver Jarvis.

Third place went to the best of the Rebellion ORECAs qualified by Bruno Senna and Julien Canal.

Porsche claimed its first GTE Pro pole position of the season with Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.

Christensen led the times on his run with a 1m53.779s, before Estre posted a 1m54.235s to give their #91 Porsche 911 RSR a 1m54.007s average.

That gave them a three-tenths magin on the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE shared by Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, who ended up with a 1m54.352s average.

The second Porsche qualified third in the hands of Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki on 1m54.518s despite using only one set of tyres.

Ford took fourth with Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke in the #66 Ganassi entry.

The best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs was a further tenth behind in fifth with Davide Rigon and Toni Vilander.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana took their third GTE Am pole position of the season in their AMR-run Vantage.

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