A thrilling qualifying session for the 6 Hours of Shanghai saw the no14 Porsche 919 of Romain Dumas and Neel Jani and the no8 Toyota TS040 of Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi set the exact same time of 1m48.300 after an average of the four best laps for each car. Dumas and Jani set their time early in the session and decided to park the car in the pitlane as Davidson and Buemi tried to beat their time.
After setting a time just 0.01 seconds behind the Porsche, Buemi's next lap meant the average of the four laps matched their rivals exactly with just 50 seconds remaining on the clock. Because Dumas and Jani set the time first, they claimed their second pole position of the season. The no20 Porsche 919 of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley were third but just 0.024 seconds adrift of the front two cars and 0.210s ahead of the no7 Toyota TS040 of Alex Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima. The two Audi R18 etron quattros will line up on row 3 tomorrow morning, with the no1 Audi of Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer 0.6 seconds ahead of Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi but 1.1 seconds behind the pole position time.
The two Rebellion R-Ones will take the 4th row on tomorrow's grid with the no12 R-One of Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche ahead of their teammates in the no13 car. The Lotus CLM-AER finished 13th at the chequered flag but a pitlane speed infringement by Pierre Kaffer meant his times were cancelled up to the time of the infringement.
The no26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla finished once again on the top of the timing sheets to claim the team's 5th pole position of the season so far. The time of 1m55.301 was 1.1 seconds faster than the second placed car, the no47 KCMG and the two SMP Racing Oreca-Nissans.
The 6 Hours of Shanghai will begin at 11:00 (local) / 04:00 (CET) tomorrow morning.
CLICK HERE for the results from qualifying
CLICK HERE to see the video from the post qualifying press conference. With Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost, Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla, Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard.
Jeff Carter
QUALIFYING FACTS
14:24:20 In LMP2 #26 fastest (9th overall) from #47 Oreca and #37 Oreca
14:22:59 In LMP1-L #12 Rebellion fastest from #13 Rebellion
14:22:06 In LMP1 #14 Porsche on pole from #8 Toyota and #20 Porsche
14:21:11 Chequered Flag
14:20:57 Porsche #14 holds onto pole with 1:48.300 average but #8 Toyota sets identical average
14:19:05 Toyota #8 has to find .011 of a second to get pole
14:16:52 Toyota #8 moves into 2nd place
14:16:07 Porsches #14 and #20 lead the way with 4 mins to go
14:13:52 1:54.327 fastest 4 lap average for #26 Ligier in P2
14:13:03 1:54.371 after 3 laps for #26 Ligier fastest in P2
14:11:41 1:48.300 first 4 lap average for #14 Porsche
14:10:35 1:48.028 average after 3 laps is fastest for #14 Porsche
14:09:19 All 16 LMPs have set 2 lap average
14:06:55 Lotus CLM #9 reported for speeding in pit lane
14:06:19 Second drivers now getting into cars
14:05:13 #26 Ligier fastest after 2 laps in P2
14:04:39 1:47.321 2 lap average for #14 Porsche fastest
14:03:34 #31 ESM HPD stopped on circuit
14:02:59 Audi #1 hit by #37 Oreca
14:01:52 Toyota #8 leads out
14:00:50 Green Flag
13:52:23 Wet session
