Audi has rocked Porsche by springing to a one-two result in qualifying for the opening round of the World Endurance Championship.
On a drying Silverstone track which followed a snow storm that had forced the cancellation of final practice, the #7 R18 e-tron quattro landed pole from its #8 stablemate.
Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler combined for a two-lap average of 1:53.20s in the 20-minute session to realise the end of Porsche’s domination in qualifying.
Porsche’s 919s were invincible in qualifying last season which stretched the Zuffenhausen maker’s run to 11 straight poles.
Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi fell just .10s short and will start the 6 Hour race in second.
The reigning champion #1 919 at the hands of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley finished almost a full second slower than the Audi and will start from third ahead of the #2 Porsche shared by Neel Jani and Romain Dumas in qualifying.
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In LMP2, the #26 Oreca-Nissan took the top spot.
The #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird took pole in GTE Pro.
Rigon and Bird’s optimum two-lap average was 1.3s quicker than the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ford GT of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke was third fastest.
Klaus Bachler, substituting for Patrick Long, and Khaled Al Qubaisi were on pole for Abu Dhabi Proton Racing in GTE Am in their Porsche 911 RSR.
See below full Silverstone 6 Hour starting grid
|
1 |
M.Fässler/A.Lotterer/B.Tréluyer |
Audi |
1:53.204 |
– |
|
2 |
L.di Grassi/L.Duval/O.Jarvis |
Audi |
1:53.308 |
0.104 |
|
3 |
T.Bernhard/M.Webber/B.Hartley |
Porsche |
1:54.150 |
0.946 |
|
4 |
R.Dumas/N.Jani/M.Lieb |
Porsche |
1:54.266 |
1.062 |
|
5 |
S.Sarrazin/M.Conway/K.Kobayashi |
Toyota |
1:58.200 |
4.996 |
|
6 |
A.Davidson/S.Buemi/K.Nakajima |
Toyota |
2:00.109 |
6.905 |
|
7 |
S.Trummer/O.Webb/J.Rossiter |
CLM/AER |
2:08.332 |
15.128 |
|
8 |
R.Rusinov/N.Berthon/R.Rast |
ORECA/Nissan |
2:08.479 |
15.275 |
|
9 |
R.Dalziel/L.Derani/C.Cumming |
Ligier/Nissan |
2:09.632 |
16.428 |
|
10 |
R.González/F.Albuquerque/B.Senna |
Ligier/Nissan |
2:10.295 |
17.091 |
|
11 |
N.Minassian/M.Mediani |
BR Engineering/Nissan |
2:10.627 |
17.423 |
|
12 |
V.Petrov/K.Ladygin/V.Shaytar |
BR Engineering/Nissan |
2:11.023 |
17.819 |
|
13 |
M.Rao/R.Bradley/R.Merhi |
ORECA/Nissan |
2′:1.893 |
18.689 |
|
14 |
G.Menezes/N.Lapierre/S.Richelmi |
Alpine/Nissan |
2:12.221 |
19.017 |
|
15 |
D.Rigon/S.Bird |
Ferrari |
2:12.440 |
19.236 |
|
16 |
T.Graves/W.Stevens/J.Jakes |
ORECA/Nissan |
2:13.105 |
19.901 |
|
17 |
N.Leventis/D.Watts/J.Kane |
Gibson/Nissan |
2:13.729 |
20.525 |
|
18 |
R.Lietz/M.Christensen |
Porsche |
2:13.822 |
20.618 |
|
19 |
B.Johnson/S.Mücke/O.Pla |
Ford |
2:14.475 |
21.271 |
|
20 |
D.Cheng/H-Pin Tung/N.Panciatici |
Alpine/Nissan |
2:14.863 |
21.659 |
|
21 |
K.Al Qubaisi/D.Hansson/K.Bachler |
Porsche |
2:15.102 |
21.898 |
|
22 |
M.Franchitti/A.Priaulx/H.Tincknell |
Ford |
2:17.367 |
24.163 |
|
23 |
C.Ried/W.Henzler/J.Camathias |
Porsche |
2:17.399 |
24.195 |
|
24 |
Y.Yamagishi/P.Ragues/P.Ruberti |
Chevrolet |
2:18.344 |
25.140 |
|
25 |
M.Wainwright/A.Carroll/B.Barker |
Porsche |
2:19.084 |
25.880 |
|
26 |
F.Perrodo/E.Collard/R.Águas |
Ferrari |
2:20.131 |
26.927 |
|
27 |
S.Sharp/E.Brown/J.van Overbeek |
Ligier/Nissan |
2:20.410 |
27.206 |
|
28 |
R.Stanaway/F.Rees |
Aston Martin |
2:21.091 |
27.887 |
|
29 |
N.Thiim/M.Sørensen/D.Turner |
Aston Martin |
2:22.252 |
29.048 |
|
30 |
P.D.Lana/P.Lamy/M.Lauda |
Aston Martin |
2:23.005 |
29.801 |
|
31 |
N.Prost/N.Piquet Jr./N.Heidfeld |
Rebellion/AER |
2:07.841 |
14.637 |
|
32 |
G.Bruni/J.Calado |
Ferrari |
2:11.589 |
18.385 |
|
33 |
M.Tuscher/D.Kraihamer/A.Imperatori |
Rebellion/AER |
– |
– |
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