Porsche has maintained its perfect qualifying record this season by seizing the front-row for Round 5 of the World Endurance Championship at Texas.
Neel Jani put in a last gasp effort in the #18 919 Hybrid to claim the prime starting spot from the #17 sister entry in the dying seconds of the 20-minute session.
Jani and German Marc Lieb set a two-lap average of 1:46.37s as Porsche look to close in on the driver’s title in the Six Hours of the Circuit of the Americas.
It was an unexpected pole after the #18 had earlier experienced problems with the hybrid system before Jani produced a sizzling lap on cold tyres in a last ditch effort.
Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley were pipped in the #17 machine by just .16s.
Audi’s #8 R18 e-tron quattro, qualified by Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval, will start from third position ahead of the driver’s title leading #7 Audi that was driven by Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer.
Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima qualified fifth ahead of the sister TS040 driven by Alex Wurz and Mike Conway.
The KCMG Oreca-Nissan was the leading LMP2 runner in qualifying, edging out the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier Nissan.
Kiwi Richie Stanaway’s late effort helped the #99 Aston Martin to claim pole in GTE Pro.
Patrick Dempsey realised his first sports car career pole after leading the GTE Am runners with help from his Porsche team-mate Patrick Long.
LMP qualifying results
| Pos | N° | Cat | Driver | Car | Driver 1 | Driver 2 | Laps | Average | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 | LMP1 | Romain DUMAS, Neel JANI, Marc LIEB | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:46.018 | 1:46.405 | 2 | 1’46.211 | |
| 2 | 17 | LMP1 | Timo BERNHARD, Mark WEBBER, Brendon HARTLEY | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:46.625 | 1:46.125 | 2 | 1’46.375 | +0.164 |
| 3 | 8 | LMP1 | Lucas DI GRASSI, Loïc DUVAL, Oliver JARVIS | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 1:47.456 | 1:47.621 | 2 | 1’47.538 | +1.327 |
| 4 | 7 | LMP1 | Marcel FÄSSLER, André LOTTERER, Benoît TRÉLUYER | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 1:47.007 | 1:48.790 | 2 | 1’47.898 | +1.687 |
| 5 | 1 | LMP1 | Anthony DAVIDSON, Sébastien BUEMI, Kazuki NAKAJIMA | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 1:48.768 | 1:49.212 | 2 | 1’48.990 | +2.779 |
| 6 | 2 | LMP1 | Alexander WURZ, Stéphane SARRAZIN, Mike CONWAY | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 1:48.465 | 1:49.888 | 2 | 1’49.176 | +2.965 |
| 7 | 12 | LMP1 | Nicolas PROST, Mathias BECHE, Nick HEIDFELD | Rebellion R-One – AER | 1:53.773 | 1:54.128 | 2 | 1’53.950 | +7.739 |
| 8 | 13 | LMP1 | Alexandre IMPERATORI, Dominik KRAIHAMER, Daniel ABT | Rebellion R-One – AER | 1:54.417 | 1:54.595 | 2 | 1’54.506 | +8.295 |
| 9 | 4 | LMP1 | Simon TRUMMER, Pierre KAFFER, | CLM P1/01 – AER | 1:55.508 | 1:56.081 | 2 | 1’55.794 | +9.583 |
| 10 | 47 | LMP2 | Matthew HOWSON, Richard BRADLEY, Nicolas LAPIERRE | Oreca 05 – Nissan | 1:57.182 | 1:56.486 | 2 | 1’56.834 | +10.623 |
| 11 | 26 | LMP2 | Roman RUSINOV, Julien CANAL, Sam BIRD | Ligier JS P2 – Nissan | 1:58.001 | 1:56.296 | 2 | 1’57.148 | +10.937 |
| 12 | 28 | LMP2 | Gustavo YACAMAN, Luis Felipe DERANI, Ricardo GONZALEZ | Ligier JS P2 – Nissan | 1:58.144 | 1:56.805 | 2 | 1’57.474 | +11.263 |
| 13 | 30 | LMP2 | Scott SHARP, Ryan DALZIEL, David HEINEMEIER HANSSON | Ligier JS P2 – HPD | 1:58.543 | 1:56.700 | 2 | 1’57.621 | +11.410 |
| 14 | 43 | LMP2 | Pierre RAGUES, Oliver WEBB, Archie HAMILTON | Morgan Evo – SARD | 1:57.141 | 1:59.077 | 2 | 1’58.109 | +11.898 |
| 15 | 42 | LMP2 | Nick LEVENTIS, Danny WATTS, Jonny KANE | Gibson 015S – Nissan | 1:57.005 | 2:02.494 | 2 | 1’59.749 | +13.538 |
| 16 | 31 | LMP2 | Ed BROWN, Johannes VAN OVERBEEK, Jonathon FOGARTY | Ligier JS P2 – HPD | 1:59.039 | 2:03.922 | 2 | 2’01.480 | +15.269 |
| 17 | 36 | LMP2 | Nelson PANCIATICI, Paul-Loup CHATIN, Vincent CAPILLAIRE | Alpine A450b – Nissan | 1:57.860 | 1 |
GTE qualifying results
| Pos | N° | Cat | Driver | Car | Driver 1 | Driver 2 | Laps | Average | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99 | LMGTE Pro | Alex MACDOWALL, Fernando REES, Richie STANAWAY | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:06.072 | 2:05.672 | 2 | 2’05.872 | |
| 2 | 91 | LMGTE Pro | Richard LIETZ, Michael CHRISTENSEN, | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:05.952 | 2:06.317 | 2 | 2’06.134 | +0.262 |
| 3 | 97 | LMGTE Pro | Darren TURNER, Jonathan ADAM, | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:06.356 | 2:06.188 | 2 | 2’06.272 | +0.400 |
| 4 | 95 | LMGTE Pro | Christoffer NYGAARD, Marco SØRENSEN, | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:05.987 | 2:06.601 | 2 | 2’06.294 | +0.422 |
| 5 | 92 | LMGTE Pro | Patrick PILET, Frédéric MAKOWIECKI, | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:05.957 | 2:06.770 | 2 | 2’06.363 | +0.491 |
| 6 | 51 | LMGTE Pro | Gianmaria BRUNI, Toni VILANDER, | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:07.204 | 2:06.368 | 2 | 2’06.786 | +0.914 |
| 7 | 71 | LMGTE Pro | Davide RIGON, James CALADO, | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:06.798 | 2:07.152 | 2 | 2’06.975 | +1.103 |
| 8 | 77 | LMGTE Am | Patrick DEMPSEY, Patrick LONG, Marco SEEFRIED | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:09.797 | 2:06.374 | 2 | 2’08.085 | +2.213 |
| 9 | 96 | LMGTE Am | Francesco CASTELLACCI, Benny SIMONSEN, Stuart HALL | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:08.755 | 2:07.774 | 2 | 2’08.264 | +2.392 |
| 10 | 83 | LMGTE Am | François PERRODO, Emmanuel COLLARD, Rui AGUAS | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:07.560 | 2:09.105 | 2 | 2’08.332 | +2.460 |
| 11 | 98 | LMGTE Am | Paul DALLA LANA, Pedro LAMY, Mathias LAUDA | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:07.568 | 2:09.313 | 2 | 2’08.440 | +2.568 |
| 12 | 72 | LMGTE Am | Victor SHAYTAR, Andrea BERTOLINI, Aleksey BASOV | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:08.038 | 2:08.847 | 2 | 2’08.442 | +2.570 |
| 13 | 50 | LMGTE Am | Gianluca RODA, Paolo RUBERTI, Kristian POULSEN | Chevrolet Corvette C7 | 2:09.845 | 2:07.759 | 2 | 2’08.802 | +2.930 |
VIDEO: Porsche Official Qualifying wrap
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