Portimao WEC: Alpine beats Toyota to maiden pole position

Matthieu Vaxiviere claimed the top spot by less than a tenth of a second from the best of the Toyotas in the hands of Brendon Hartley.

Vaxiviere set the initial pace aboard the solo Alpine-Gibson A480 LMP1 car, but needed a second run on a fresh set of tyres to secure the pole thanks to a big improvement from Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID.

The Kiwi had languished down in fifth in the times behind the best of the LMP2 prototypes after his first run, but his second run would have given him the pole had not Vaxiviere not found just over a tenth.

Vaxiviere ended up on a 1m30.364s, which compared with 1m30.458s for Hartley.

Mike Conway was initially just a fraction behind the Alpine with a 1m30.540s, but the Brit failed to improve on his second run in the #7 Toyota and dropped to third.

The new Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH ended up only 11th in the times behind seven LMP2 cars despite an improvement to 1m32.167s from Richard Westbrook on his second run.

That was a couple of tenths slower than the Brit had managed in final free practice on the way to fourth in the times ahead of the two Toyotas.

#28 JOTA Oreca 07 - Gibson: Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne, Tom Blomqvist

Photo by: LAT Images/Motorsport Images

Tom Blomqvist came out on top in intra-team battle at Jota for the LMP2 pole.

The Briton initially trailed team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, but both went for second runs aboard their ORECA-Gibson 07s in the short 10-minute session.

Blomqvist found a couple of tenths to get down to a 1m31.210s, while Da Costa didn't improve on his first run time of 1m31.255s.

Job van Uitert took third in P2 and first in the Pro/Am sub-class aboard Racing Team Nederland's ORECA courtesy of a 1m31.545s.

Paul di Resta took fourth for reigning P2 champion team United Autosport despite multiple track-limits violations.

The Scot managed to get down to a 1m31.598s, which put him just ahead of Robin Frijns in the WRT ORECA.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani, Michael Christensen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Porsche driver Kevin Estre made it two poles in two races in GTE Pro.

The Frenchman's 1m37.986s lap aboard his factory Porsche 911 RSR put him three tenths clear of James Calado's AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Calado's 1m38.359s lap gave him a slender margin of just three hundredths over Gianmaria Bruni in the second of the Porsches.

Daniel Serra ended up fourth in the times in the second Ferrari: the Brazilian initially lost his only lap to a track limits violation and before the time was reinstated.

Egidio Perfetti jumped ahead of Christian Ried in an all-Porsche battle for pole in GTE Am right at the end of 10-minute session for GT machinery.

The WEC 8 Hours of Portimao starts on Sunday June 13 at 11:00 local time (+1 GMT) and will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv.

Portimao 8 Hours WEC qualifying results - LMP

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'30.364
2	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'30.458	0.094
3	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'30.540	0.176
4	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.210	0.846
5	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.255	0.891
6	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.545	1.181
7	Philip Hanson Wayne Boyd Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.598	1.234
8	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.648	1.284
9	Jakub Smiechowski Louis Deletraz Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.737	1.373
10	Esteban Garcia Mathias Beche Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.854	1.490
11	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Richard Westbrook	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'32.167	1.803
12	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.526	2.162
13	Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.626	2.262
14	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.748	2.384
15	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Tom Jackson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'34.224	3.860
View full results

Portimao 8 Hours WEC qualifying results - GT

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'37.986
2	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.359	0.373
3	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'38.389	0.403
4	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.743	0.757
5	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'40.191	2.205
6	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'40.236	2.250
7	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.885	2.899
8	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'41.001	3.015
9	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Manuela Gostner	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'41.085	3.099
10	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'41.141	3.155
11	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'41.276	3.290
12	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.366	3.380
13	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.499	3.513
14	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'41.604	3.618
15	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'41.993	4.007
16	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'42.521	4.535
17	Dominique Bastien Marco Seefried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'43.374	5.388
View full results