This page contains archived information and may not display perfectly

Porsche claim front-row at Nürburgring

29.08.15
The two Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 racers will start from the front row for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring.

Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb shared the qualifying driving duties to register a best two lap average of 1m36.473s in the No 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid. This eclipsed the second Porsche 919 Hybrid entry, driven by Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, by just 0.069s.

Dumas started and finished the qualifying session, setting the fastest outright lap of qualifying with a scorching 1m36.192s. It sealed the second consecutive pole position for the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid and ensured that Team Porsche keep its 100% pole record so far in 2015.

Audi Sport Team Joest start the race from the second row as the No.8 Audi R18 etron quattro driven by Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grassi lapped at a best average of 1m37.476s. This was just over 0.3s faster than the No.7 Audi R18 etron quattro driven by Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer.

The pair of Toyota TS040 LMP1 cars will start the race from fifth and sixth, with the No.1 TS040 ahead of the No.2 sister car. Toyota Racing, which is based less than an hour away in Cologne at the Toyota Motorsport GmbH headquarters, will be aiming for its first podium position of the season tomorrow afternoon.

Rebellion Racing led the way as LMP1 privateers with the No 12 Rebellion R-One AER beating the No 13 example by just under half a second.

LMP2 saw a familiar frenetic battle, between the No.26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan driven by Julien Canal and Sam Bird and the Nick Tandy and Matt Howson crewed No.47 KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan.

Bird and Tandy fought furiously, trading quick laps in the final portion of the session. Ultimately, the spectacular Tandy set the quicker laps and combined with Howson’s earlier effort the average of 1m46.132s was enough for the team’s second consecutive pole position in the WEC.

Rounding out the top three in LMP2 was the Signatech entered Alpine A450B-Nissan, with Vincent Capillaire and Neslon Panciatici combining to provide their best qualifying performance of the year so far.