6H Spa: Pole for Rebellion as Aston Martin qualifies top in LMGTE Pro
Photo: WEC / Adrenal
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6H Spa: Pole for Rebellion as Aston Martin qualifies top in LMGTE Pro

Rebellion Racing have claimed the team’s fourth consecutive overall pole position to take top spot ahead of tomorrow’s TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Season 8.

Below are the main headlines from this evening’s qualifying sessions. 

LMP1
•    Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato combine to average 1:59.577, the only LMP car to dip under the 2-minute mark
•    Menezes sets scintillating overall fastest time of 1:59.342 on his 3rd flying lap, profiting from the high downforce set up on the No.1 Rebellion R13 Gibson
•    Toyota Gazoo Racing will start 2nd and 3rd as No.8 TS050 HYBRID of Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, with a combined time of 2:00.417, heads sister No.7 entry of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi (2:01.070)
•    WEC returnee, ByKolles Racing Team will start 4th, with Oliver Webb and Tom Dillmann setting an average lap time of 2:01.907 in the No.4 Enso CLM/P1/01

LMGTE Pro

•    The slightly cooler conditions today suited the Aston Martin Vantage AMR perfectly, with pole position going to the No. 97 entry driven by Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn
•    The duo combined to set an average lap time of 2:14.635
•    It is the No. 97’s first pole of the season and Aston Martin Racing’s second out of six events  
•    Pole position was initially declared to the 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 but Estre’s laps were later deleted following a stewards’ investigation into track abuse limits 
•    Starting second is the No.95 Dane Train of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen in another Aston Martin Vantage AMR, one spot ahead of the No 91 Porsche GT Team entry 
•    The two Ferrari 488 GTE EVOs are fourth and fifth, the No.71 just three one hundredths of a second ahead of its sister car No.51

LMP2
•    Category leaders United Autosports claimed second pole of Season 8 after Paul Di Resta and Phil Hanson combined to take an average time of 2:02.148 
•    British team ahead of No. 38 JOTA entry who were second with pairing of Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson who set a combined time of 2:03.687
•    No.42 Cool Racing entry will start third as Nico Lapierre and Antonin Borga post a combined time of 2:03.956 at the wheel of an ORECA 07 Gibson
•    Fourth quickest was Jackie Chan DC Racing, with Ryan Cullen stepping in for Gabriel Aubry to join Ho-Pin Tung and Will Stevens in the No. 37 ORECA

LMGTE Am 
•    In LMGTE Am the No.77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR of Matt Campbell and Christian Ried claimed a first pole position of the season to lead a Porsche 1-2-3 
•    Australian Campbell set the fastest individual lap of the class at 2:15.300 to boost the combined average to 2:16.519.
•    In 2nd and 3rd place in class were the two Team Project 1 entries, with Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti in the No.56 lapping 0.49 seconds ahead of the sister No.57 car.
•    Augusto Farfus has settled into the British Aston Martin Racing team quickly, qualifying with Paul Dalla Lana in 4th place (2:17.563) in the No.98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
•    Multiple lap times were deleted throughout the field due to abuse of track limits, the Race Director and Stewards coming down hard on drivers throughout the field.

For full results and time from qualifying, click HERE.

Tomorrow’s 6-hour race will commence at 13h30 local time (Saturday 15 August).