Porsche n°1 on pole ahead of Toyota and Audi

Porsche a obtenu des résultats mitigés aux qualifications des 6 Heures de Shanghai (Chine). L’équipe allemande peut se réjouir d’une nouvelle pole décrochée par la 919 Hybrid n°1 de Brendon Hartley et Mark Webber qui a réalisé un tour moyen en 1’44’’462 malgré un premier tour du Néo-Zélandais annulé pour dépassement des limites de la piste. La LMP1 des champions du monde en titre a précédé de six centièmes la Toyota n ° 5 of Sébastien Buemi et Kazuki Nakajima and by a tenth the Audi n°8 of Loïc duval and Oliver Jarvis.

The poor performance can still be attributed to the No. 2 Porsche of Championship leaders Marc Lieb and Neel Jani, the second 919 Hybrid only ranking sixth behind the No. 050 TS6 Hybrid of Mike conway and Stéphane Sarrazin and the R18 n°7 of Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer. The main reason is the cancellation of Marc Lieb's first attempt, which was aborted due to excessive fuel consumption. However, the gaps remained very small with a difference of half a second between the two Porsche LMP1s.

Manor took the LMP2 pole with the No. 05 Oreca 44 of Lynn-Bradley-Rao credited with a time of 1'54''225 which was a tenth ahead of theAlpine A460 n°36 of the leaders in the Menezes category-Stone-Richelmi. RGR Sport by Morand is only in fifth place with the Ligier JS P2 of Senna-Albuquerque-Gonzalez which ranked behind the No. 2 Ligier JS P30 of ESM of Giovinazzi-Blomqvist-Gelael and the Oreca 05 of Rusinov-Stevens-Brundle’s G-Drive Racing.

In GTE Pro, Ford once again monopolized the front row as in Fuji (Japan). Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell were the fastest, completing a lap of the track in 2'01''391 in the No. 67, beating the sister car of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mücke by more than a tenth.

THEAston Martin #95 of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen took third ahead of the Ferrari n°51 AF Corse by Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado. The Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR driven by Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen completed the top five in the category.

Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy won a new pole in GTE Am in the #98 Vantage credited with a time of 2'03''767 while the Canadian saw his first attempt canceled due to exceeding the limits of the track.

Results of the 6 Hours of Shanghai

The start of the 6 Hours of Shanghai will take place tomorrow at 4 a.m. (French time) and will be followed live on Motors TV and L’Équipe 21.