Shanghai WEC: Toyota takes pole with Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre
Toyota claimed only its second pole position of this year's World Endurance Championship at Shanghai
Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre followed up on their pole at the Silverstone season opener by setting a four-lap average of 1m48.013s aboard their Toyota TS030 HYBRID to edge out Audi drivers Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer by just 0.089 seconds.
The Toyota duo had a couple of tenths in hand before Treluyer went out again at the end of the 20-minute session and improved the Audi R18 e-tron quattro's average to close to within a tenth.
Lapierre said: "Last year, this was our most competitive track and this year it looks good as well.
"It's looking better than ever before this season with two competitive cars, but we have to be careful. Benoit did a very good lap at the end."
The second Toyota, shared in qualifying by Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi, was third, a further six tenths down on the Audi with a 1m48.694s average.
The championship-leading Audi, qualified by Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, ended up more than a second behind its sister car in fourth place.
G-Drive/Delta-ADR drivers John Martin and Mike Conway dominated LMP2 aboard their ORECA-Nissan 03 to claim class pole by nearly eight tenths ahead of the best of the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissans shared by Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle.
Aston Martin Racing took pole position in both GTE classes.
Darren Turner put in two laps in the Aston Martin Vantage GTE he shares with Stefan Mucke to leapfrog over the sister car qualified by Bruno Senna and Richie Stanaway to jump to the top of the times in the Pro division by just 0.019s.
Christoffer Nygaard and Nicki Thiim won the Am class pole by just 0.015s from the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia shared by Marco Cioci and Matt Griffin.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. P1 Wurz/Lapierre Toyota 1m48.013s 2. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 1m48.102s +0.089s 3. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 1m48.694s +0.681s 4. P1 Kristensen/Duval/McNish Audi 1m49.173s +1.160s 5. P1 Belicchi/Beche/Prost Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m51.204s +3.191s 6. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m55.423s 7. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m56.210s +0.787s 8. P2 Shulzhitckiy/Lux/Wirdheim Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m56.219s +0.796s 9. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m56.243s +0.820s 10. P2 Graves/Kerr/Dolby Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m56.284s +0.861s 11. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m56.971s +1.548s 12. P2 Weeda/Liuzzi/Bouchut Lotus 1m57.531s +2.108s 13. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus 1m57.639s +2.216s 14. P2 Nicolet/Ihara/Cheng OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m59.063s +3.640s 15. GTE P Turner/Mucke Aston Martin 2m04.370s 16. GTE P Lamy/Senna/Stanaway Aston Martin 2m04.389s +0.019s 17. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Manthey Porsche 2m04.881s +0.511s 18. GTE P Kobayashi/Vilander AF Ferrari 2m04.887s +0.517s 19. GTE P Bergmeister/Pilet Manthey Porsche 2m05.049s +0.679s 20. GTE P Bruni/Fisichella AF Ferrari 2m05.222s +0.852s 21. GTE A Nygaard/Poulsen/Thiim Aston Martin 2m05.903s 22. GTE A Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 2m05.918s +0.015s 23. GTE A Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon 8Star Ferrari 2m06.150s +0.247s 24. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 2m06.416s +0.513s 25. GTE A Narac/Vernay/Palttala Imsa Porsche 2m06.738s +0.835s 26. GTE A Campbell-Walter/Hall/Adam Aston Martin 2m06.943s +1.040s 27. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 2m07.584s +1.681s 28. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 2m07.669s +1.766s
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