Shanghai WEC: Toyotas lock out front row but face privateer pressure
Toyota edged the best of the LMP1 privateers to lockout the front row in qualifying for the Shanghai round of the World Endurance Championship
Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway claimed pole at the end of a session in which the Japanese manufacturer came under qualifying pressure for the first time in the 2018/19 WEC superseason.
Kobayashi and Conway ended with a 1m42.931 seconds average in the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID, which was only three tenths up on the Rebellion-Gibson R-13 qualified by Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer.
Kobayashi's first-run time of 1m43.329s beat team-mate Fernando Alonso by three tenths before Conway posted a 1m43.155s to go just two hundreths quicker than Kazuki Nakajima.
Both Kobayashi and Alonso then went again, Kobayashi going four tenths quicker than his team-mate on the way to the fastest time of the session with a 1m42.708s.
That meant Kobayashi and Conway finished with a 1m42.931s average, four tenths up on Alonso and Nakajima's 1m43.139s.
Lotterer also went again on a fresh set of rubber and found 0.7s to improve to 1m42.869s and lowered the #1 Rebellion's average to 1m43.218s.
Kobayashi said: "The track was improving and Mike did a great lap, so I went again, which was important because it was quite tight at the end."
The #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 qualified by Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev took fourth with a 1m43.879s, three tenths up on the fifth-placed Rebellion of Mathias Beche and Thomas Laurent.
The DragonSpeed BRE-Gibson driven by Ben Hanley and Renger van der Zande edged out the second of the AER-engined SMP cars qualified by Jenson Button and Vitaly Petrov for sixth.
The Jackie Chan DC Racing squad took the LMP2 pole with Gabriel Aubry and Ho-Pin Tung.
They ended up on a 1m48.888s average aboard, which put them 0.25s up on the sister car of Nabil Jeffri and Jazeman Jaafar.
Nicolas Lapierre set the fastest P2 time of the session in the Signatech ORECA on a 1m48.598s, but Pierre Thiriet ended up more than three seconds slower after a spin.
That dropped them to fourth behind the DragonSpeed ORECA qualified by Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez.
Ford claimed a last-gasp pole position in GTE Pro after Stefan Mucke went out for a second run in the car he shares with Olivier Pla.
The German found over a second with a 1m56.464s lap aboard the #66 Ganassi Ford GT to snatch pole away from the MTEK BMW M8 GTE of Nicky Catsburg and Martin Tomczyk.
The Ford duo ended up on 1m58.627s average, 0.2s clear of the BMW drivers' 1m58.874s.
Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn took third in the best of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs with a 1m59.000s.
The two factory AF Corse Ferraris took ninth and 10th, qualifying only ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, which ended up nearly a second and a half off the pace.
Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana claimed their fifth consecutive GTE Am pole position at Shanghai for Aston Martin.
Result
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1m42.931s |
2 | LMP1 | S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 0.228s |
3 | LMP1 | N.Jani, A.Lotterer, B.Senna | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | 0.287s |
4 | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev, M.Isaakyan | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/AER | 0.939s |
5 | LMP1 | M.Beche, T.Laurent, G.Menezes | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | 1.248s |
6 | LMP1 | J.Allen, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande | DragonSpeed | BR Engineering/Gibson | 1.681s |
7 | LMP1 | M.Aleshin, V.Petrov, J.Button | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/AER | 1.858s |
8 | LMP1 | O.Webb, T.Dillmann, J.Rossiter | ByKOLLES Racing Team | ENSO CLM/NISMO | 3.422s |
9 | LMP2 | H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, S.Richelmi | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 5.957s |
10 | LMP2 | J.Jaafar, W.Tan, N.Jeffri | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 6.207s |
11 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, A.Davidson | DragonSpeed | ORECA/Gibson | 6.926s |
12 | LMP2 | N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet | Signatech Alpine Matmut | Alpine/Gibson | 7.275s |
13 | LMP2 | F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, L.Duval | TDS Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 8.075s |
14 | LMP2 | F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries | Racing Team Nederland | Dallara/Gibson | 8.726s |
15 | LMP2 | E.Creed, R.Ricci, E.Guibbert | Larbre Competition | Ligier/Gibson | 8.994s |
16 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 15.696s |
17 | GTE Pro | M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg | BMW Team MTEK | BMW | 15.943s |
18 | GTE Pro | A.Lynn, M.Martin | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 16.069s |
19 | GTE Pro | M.Christensen, K.Estre | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 16.100s |
20 | GTE Pro | T.Blomqvist, A.F.da Costa | BMW Team MTEK | BMW | 16.124s |
21 | GTE Pro | M.Sorensen, N.Thiim | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 16.226s |
22 | GTE Pro | A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 16.347s |
23 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, G.Bruni | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 16.355s |
24 | GTE Pro | A.P.Guidi, J.Calado | AF Corse | Ferrari | 16.523s |
25 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 16.758s |
26 | GTE Pro | O.Gavin, T.Milner | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 17.297s |
27 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 18.953s |
28 | GTE Am | C.Ried, J.Andlauer, M.Campbell | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 19.020s |
29 | GTE Am | T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 19.159s |
30 | GTE Am | K.Al Qubaisi, R.Pera, M.Cairoli | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 19.184s |
31 | GTE Am | S.Yoluc, J.Adam, C.Eastwood | TF Sport | Aston Martin | 19.280s |
32 | GTE Am | Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin | Clearwater Racing | Ferrari | 19.469s |
33 | GTE Am | J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti | Team Project 1 | Porsche | 19.498s |
34 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, B.Barker, T.Preining | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 21.310s |
35 | GTE Am | M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever | MR Racing | Ferrari | 21.717s |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments