Audi has rebounded from a blunt Le Mans campaign to earn a front-row sweep in qualifying for the Nurburgring 6 Hours.
Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler put together an aggregate time of 1:39.44s to take pole from team-mates Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi.
Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard were .41s away from the top pair in their Porsche 919 Hybrid while their team-mates Neel Jani and Marc Lieb will start beside them in fourth.
“P3 – we knew it would be close. I am happy with our car and we all performed well,“ said Webber.
“Everyone tried to beat the rain. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to do that. In the end, everyone has a story where he could have gone better today. It was just tricky reading the timing of the showers.“
After their bitter defeat at Le Mans, the pair of Toyotas could only manage fifth and sixth fastest with Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi nudging the sister TS050 of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.
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Alexandre Imperatori and Dominik Kraihamer were the best of the non-factory LMP1s with seventh in the Rebellion.
The Audi lock-out for the R18 e-tron quattros repeated the Ingolstadt maker’s qualifying effort at the opening round at Silverstone before their #7 machine was disqualified with the #8 suffering an early retirement in April.
In LMP2, the G-Drive ORECA Nissan of Roman Rusinov and Rene Rast took the pole ahead of the Signatech Alpine Nissan of Stephane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes.
Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen supplied Aston Martin with pole in GTE Pro narrowly ahead of the Ford GT of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke.
Porsche took first and second spots in GTE Am which was led by the experienced Patrick Long and Khaled Al Qubaisi in the Proton Racing 911 RSR.
VIDEO: Porsche Saturday wrap
See below full qualifying results
| Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LMP1 | M.Fassler, A.Lotterer | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1:39.444s | – |
| 2 | LMP1 | L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1:39.710 | 0.266s |
| 3 | LMP1 | T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1:39.861 | 0.417 |
| 4 | LMP1 | R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1:39.893 | 0.449 |
| 5 | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1:40.639 | 1.195 |
| 6 | LMP1 | A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1:40.748 | 1.304 |
| 7 | LMP1 | M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1:46.081 | 6.637 |
| 8 | LMP1 | S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer | ByKOLLES Racing Team | CLM/AER | 1:46.907 | 7.463 |
| 9 | LMP1 | N.Prost, N.Heidfeld, M.Beche | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1:47.026 | 7.582 |
| 10 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.Brundle | G-Drive Racing | ORECA/Nissan | 1:48.984 | 9.540 |
| 11 | LMP2 | G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi | Signatech Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 1:49.727 | 10.283 |
| 12 | LMP2 | N.Leventis, L.Williamson, J.Kane | Strakka Racing | Gibson/Nissan | 1:49.762 | 10.318 |
| 13 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque | RGR Sport by Morand | Ligier/Nissan | 1:50.105 | 10.661 |
| 14 | LMP2 | T.Graves, A.Pizzonia, M.Howson | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1:50.372 | 10.928 |
| 15 | LMP2 | N.Minassian, M.Mediani | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1:50.948 | 11.504 |
| 16 | LMP2 | R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.Cumming | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1:51.194 | 11.750 |
| 17 | LMP2 | M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1:51.294 | 11.850 |
| 18 | LMP2 | V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1:51.667 | 12.223 |
| 19 | LMP2 | D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici | Baxi DC Racing Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 1:52.506 | 13.062 |
| 20 | LMP2 | S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1:56.462 | 17.018 |
| 21 | GTE Pro | N.Thiim, M.Sorensen | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2:01.712 | 22.268 |
| 22 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 2:01.959 | 22.515 |
| 23 | GTE Pro | R.Stanaway, D.Turner | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2:02.220 | 22.776 |
| 24 | GTE Pro | G.Bruni, J.Calado | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2:02.512 | 23.068 |
| 25 | GTE Pro | M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 2:03.256 | 23.812 |
| 26 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, M.Christensen | Dempsey Racing – Proton | Porsche | 2:03.681 | 24.237 |
| 27 | GTE Am | K.Al Qubaisi, D.Hansson, P.Long | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche | 2:06.011 | 26.567 |
| 28 | GTE Am | C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias | KCMG | Porsche | 2:06.197 | 26.753 |
| 29 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 2:06.372 | 26.928 |
| 30 | GTE Am | F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2:06.589 | 27.145 |
| 31 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2:06.745 | 27.301 |
| 32 | GTE Am | Y.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, P.Ruberti | Larbre Competition | Chevrolet | 2:09.127 | 29.683 |
| 33 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker | Gulf Racing UK | Porsche | 2:09.820 | 30.376 |
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