Sat, Nov 1st 2014 – A thrilling qualifying session for the 6 Hours of Shanghai saw the no14 Porsche 919 of Romain Dumas and Neel Jani and the no8 Toyota TS040 of Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi set the exact same time of 1m48.300 after an average of the four best laps for each car. Dumas and Jani set their time early in the session and decided to park the car in the pitlane as Davidson and Buemi tried to beat their time.
After setting a time just 0.01 seconds behind the Porsche, Buemi’s next lap meant the average of the four laps matched their rivals exactly with just 50 seconds remaining on the clock. Because Dumas and Jani set the time first, they claimed their second pole position of the season. The no20 Porsche 919 of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley were third but just 0.024 seconds adrift of the front two cars and 0.210s ahead of the no7 Toyota TS040 of Alex Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima. The two Audi R18 etron quattros will line up on row 3 tomorrow morning, with the no1 Audi of Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer 0.6 seconds ahead of Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi but 1.1 seconds behind the pole position time.
The two Rebellion R-Ones will take the 4th row on tomorrow’s grid with the no12 R-One of Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche ahead of their teammates in the no13 car. The Lotus CLM-AER finished 13th at the chequered flag but a pitlane speed infringement by Pierre Kaffer meant his times were cancelled up to the time of the infringement.
The no26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla finished once again on the top of the timing sheets to claim the team’s 5th pole position of the season so far. The time of 1m55.301 was 1.1 seconds faster than the second placed car, the no47 KCMG and the two SMP Racing Oreca-Nissans.
Aston Martin maintained its 100% record at the Shanghai International Circuit by claiming pole position in the LMGTE Pro category for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Shanghai, the sixth round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, and topped it with pole position in the LMGTE Am class as well.
In a tense session which was dry until the last five minutes, each of the GTE manufacturers was vying for the top, with the primary battle coming down to Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke’s No.97 Vantage V8 and the No.92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki.
The Porsche set the pace early in the 25-minute session, but the average of the two best laps from each of the Aston Martin drivers was enough to tip the balance towards last year’s pole sitter and LMGTE Pro race winners. Their best (averaged) time was 2:04.347 – less than three hundredths of a second better than the time they set for pole last year – and only a tenth of a second ahead of the Porsche.
Third in the Pro category was the No.91 911 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister and Richard Lietz, the German marque benefiting from the 10kg weight reduction this weekend and being at a track which appears to suit the car well. Their time of 2:04.599 was three tenths ahead of the first of the two AF Corse Ferraris, the No.51 F458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander qualifying marginally ahead of the No.71 of Davide Rigon and James Calado. The No.99 Aston Martin Vantage of Fernando Rees, Darryl O’Young and Alex MacDowall was only two hundredths of a second behind the 71.
In the LMGTE Am category, the No.75 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Emmanuel Collard and Matthieu Vaxivière did all it could to prevent Aston Martin from taking a double pole position but it was in vain. The No.98 Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard eclipsed last year’s pole position time (set by Aston Martin’s No.95) by almost a second, setting a new qualifying lap record for the category.
Third in the class was the No.95 Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway – who set the early running in the time sheets – and David Heinemeier Hansson with a lap of 2:05.203. The No.90 8Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia of Paolo Ruberti and Matteo Cressoni was fourth, and the No.88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried and Wolf Henzler rounded out the LMGTE runners, less than a second separating the five entries.
The 6 Hours of Shanghai will begin at 11:00 (local) / 04:00 (CET) tomorrow morning.
