Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley took a fourth FIA World Endurance Championship pole position in the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid at Shanghai this afternoon.
Porsche scored another 1-2 in qualifying to maintain its perfect pole record in the 2015 World Endurance Championship and ensure that Webber, Hartley and teammate Timo Bernhard stretch their title advantage to two points.
The title-leading No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley set an average of 1m42.719s this afternoon. Hartley, who has been the quickest driver in the No.17 for most of the meeting, set an outright best of 1m42.621s to lay the foundations of a convincing pole. Before war is declared in the Rugby World Cup this evening, the Australian and New Zealander worked in perfect harmony throughout the qualifying session.
Such was the advantage that the No.17 Porsche enjoyed, Webber was able to pit the car with five minutes to go. The No.17 Porsche had 0.769s over the sister No.18 car which made an unexpected pit stop after the first lap out of the pit. Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas were on qualifying duties this afternoon. The No.18 Porsche fought back from an engine change which was completed just before the qualifying session.
Audi was unable to trouble the Porsches at Shanghai today in qualifying and line-up third and fourth on the grid. Marcel Fassler hit traffic on his quick lap and was left frustrated to not get nearer the team's German rivals today.
The No.7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, in the hands of Fassler and Benoit Treluyer will start behind the sister Audi Sport Team Joest car which was qualified by Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi today.
Toyota finished in fifth and sixth places once again, with Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson qualifying the No.1 TS 040 HYBRID ahead of the Alex Wurz and Mike Conway crewed car, which was just under 0.2s behind.
The LMP1 Privateer category was headed by the No.12 Rebellion Racing R-One-AER driven by Dominik Kraihamer and Alexander Imperatori. The pair, who are joined by FIA WEC newcomer Matheo Tuscher this weekend, had a trouble-free run to secure the pole from the No.12 Rebellion of Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche.
LMP2 pole was claimed for a third successive race by Sam Bird and Julien Canal in the No.26 G-Drive Ligier-Nissan. Canal fought back superbly from an accident in the final Free Practice session this morning, while Bird set easily the fastest individual class lap on a 1m51.984s. The average for the LMP2 pole sitter was 1m52.763s.
The G-Drive Racing Ligier was almost six tenths of a second quicker than the KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan. The two title rivals will start from the front row; Matt Howson and Nick Tandy qualified the car for the Hong Kong-entered team as they attempt to hunt down a now 13-point deficit to the G-Drive trio.
The other G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan qualified by Ricardo Gonzalez and Pipo Derani today placed third maintaining a consistent run of strong performances.
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Qualifying Facts
