WEC – Fuji: Porsche snatches pole position

For a long time, we believed that an Audi was going to be on the first row of the starting grid. But in a final rush, Marc Lieb managed to climb to second place. At the end of a superb qualifying session, Porsche signs his 10th pole position in WEC, thanks to the 919 Hybrid n°17 ​​of Timo Bernhard-Mark Webber-Brendon Hartley. The first two named set an average time of 1’22”763. The winner of the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring and the 6 Hours of Austin finally finished ahead of the sister car of Romain Dumas-Neel Jani-Marc Lieb by 0 seconds. The latter therefore blew away second place in the final moments, by only 308 seconds, from the Audi R0 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer-Benoît Tréluyer.

In fourth place, we find the second LM P1 with four rings, that of Lucas di Grassi-Loïc duval-Oliver Jarvis, who follows at just 0”5. The duel between the German manufacturers promises to be magnificent. Toyota, on the other hand, is two seconds behind its rivals.

In private LM P1, the two Rebellion R-Ones took over the CLM P1/01-AER, the no. 13 of Kraihamer-Abt-Imperatori ahead of the no. 12 of Cheers-Spade.

Already very lively in free practice, the No. 2 Ligier JS P26 confirmed in qualifying, notably thanks to a great Julien Canal. Le Manceau, who shares the wheel with Sam Bird and Roman Rusinov, therefore offers pole position to G-Drive Racing thanks to an average time of 1'31"280. If the #28 of Derani-Yacaman-Gonzalez follows two tenths behind, third place goes to the #43 Morgan of Team SARD Morand, on which Pierre Ragues, Oliver Webb and Chris Cumming take turns. Note that Nick Tandy made a mistake at the wheel of the No. 05 KCMG Oreca 47, ultimately fourth.

Ferrari ruled the roost in GTE Pro, but not with the expected car. It was in fact the No. 458 71 Italia of James Calado and Davide Rigon which was the fastest with an average time of 1’38”295. The Briton and his Italian friend take their first pole position in the WEC. Follows, at 0"2, the sister car of Bruni-Vilander, and at 0"3 theAston Martin Vantage n°99 by Mücke-MacDowall-Rees. The first Porsche 911 RSR, the #91 of Michael Christensen-Richard Lietz, is fourth at 0. Note that all cars in the category are grouped in the same second.

LTree Competition lost its pole in GTE Am. The No. 7 C50.R of the Paolo Ruberti-Gianluca Roda-Nicolai Sylvest trio, in 1'39"901, had offered the Vigeant team its first pole position since the 6 Hours of Fuji 2012, before having to give up the lead. first place to the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari.

Tomorrow, the start of the race will be at 4:00 p.m. French time.

Qualifying video summary