WEC: Toyota Survive Time Deletion to Take Pole

[Jack Hunsley]

Toyota have stormed to a comfortable front row lock out in the WEC 2017 season opener at Silverstone after having a time deleted early on in the session.

Mike Conway was forced to take a second run in the #7 Toyota after having been judged to exceed track limits on his initial run at Copse corner, but solid lap from the Brit, along with a record breaking 1:36.793 from Kamui Kobayashi proved more than enough to give Toyota their first WEC pole in over three years. Behind the #6 was the #5, with the two Toyota's separated only be Kobayashi lightning quick lap, whilst both Porsche trailed by over a second, with the #1 car coming out on top.

In LMP2 G-Drive secured pole for the second year running with Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet's laps giving them a very slight advantage over the Signatech #36, whilst the #38 Jackie Chan DC entry rounding out the top three.

Down in the GT classes Andy Prialux gave Ford their third class pole since their return last season. Both Priaulx and Tincknell set times well ahead of any of the other teams to take a relatively easy pole ahead of the #71 AF Corse entry, whilst the #95 Aston Martin was third.

Finally, GTE Am pole went to the Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana. Their combined effort gave them a second advantage over the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci.

6 Hours of Silverstone - Full Qualifying Results
1. LMP1 - #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi) - 1:37.304
2. LMP1 - #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima) - 1:37.593
3. LMP1 - #1 Porsche Team (Jani, Lotterer, Tandy) - 1:38.615
4. LMP1 - #2 Porsche Team (Bernhard, Bamber, Hartley) - 1:39.063
5. LMP2 - #26 G-Drive Racing (Rusinov, Thirlet, Lynn) - 1:44.387
6. LMP2 - #36 Signatech Alpine (Lapierre, Menezes, Rao) - 1:44.433
7. LMP2 - #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing (Tung, Jarvis, Laurent) - 1:44.591
8. LMP2 - #31 Vaillante Rebellion (Canal, Prost, Senna) - 1:45.194
9. LMP1 - #4 ByKolles Racing Team (Webb, Rossiter) - 1:45.235
10. LMP2 - #13 Vaillante Rebellion (Beche, Hansson, Piquet Jr.) - 1:45.323
11. LMP2 - #24 CEFC Manor TRS Racing (Graves, Hirschi, Vergne) - 1:46.102
12. LMP2 - #28 TDS Racing (Perrodo, Vaxivière, Collard) - 1:46.183
13. LMP2 - #25 CEFC Manor TRS Racing (Gonzalez, Trummer, Petrov) - 1:46.494
14. LMP2 - #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing (Cheng, Brundle, Gommendy) - 1:47.250
15. GTE Pro - #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Tincknell, Priaulx, Derani) - 1:56.202
16. GTE Pro - #71 AF Corse (Rigon, Bird) - 1:57.011
17. GTE Pro - #95 Aston Martin Racing (Thiim, Sørensen, Stanaway) - 1:57.117
18. GTE Pro - #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Johnson, Mücke, Pla) - 1:57.269
19. GTE Pro - #97 Aston Martin Racing (Turner, Adam, Serra) - 1:57.414
20. GTE Pro - #51 AF Corse (Calado, Pier Guidi) - 1:57.466
21. GTE Pro - #91 Porsche GT (Lietz, Makowiecki) - 1:58.003
22. GTE Pro - #92 Porsche GT (Christensen, Estre) - 1:58.066
23. GTE Am - #98 Aston Martin Racing (Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda) - 1:59.562
24. GTE Am - #54 Spirit of Race (Flohr, Castellacci, Molina) - 2:00.608
25. GTE Am - #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing (Ried, Cairoli, Dienst) - 2:01.347
26. GTE Am - #61 Clearwater (Sun Mok, Sawa, Griffin) - 2:01.621
27. GTE Am - #86 Gulf Racing (Wainwright, Foster, Barker) - 2:01.925

 

[Blimey]

" Rebellion (Canal, Prost, Senna) "
Interesting combo.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

" Rebellion (Canal, Prost, Senna) "
Interesting combo.

haha, well spotted, should be "down the drain" rather than "canal" plus, they're running under the "michel vaillante" logo, brings back some memories being a kid and devouring the vaillante stories.

 

[Vasilis Katerinakis]

So ByKolles cam 9th in qualy being beaten by 4 LMP2s. JESUS when people said that ByKolles car was bad i didn't expect this!! Thank god Kubica left!

 

[Jimlaad43]

Kobayashi's time would have allowed him to start the 2016 British Grand Prix, it was that quick.

 

[Akra]

Hopefully the official stream actually works today. Was massively unimpressed at paying €35 for season access and qualifying simply not working.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

just found this and watching it now.. wow ...

More action in the opening laps than in a whole f1 race

don't forget to close the door Andy

 

[Blimey]

haha, well spotted, should be "down the drain" rather than "canal" plus, they're running under the "michel vaillante" logo, brings back some memories being a kid and devouring the vaillante stories.

I have Vaillante's Le Mans movie on my shelf...

 

[Chris]

It's pretty sad sight with only four LMP1 cars. Definitely need more in that class. Every other class is massively competitive.

 

[Blimey]

It's pretty sad sight with only four LMP1 cars. Definitely need more in that class. Every other class is massively competitive.

and people were saying WEC is growing, nah.

 

[Akra]

LMP1 turned out to be massively competitive too. They put on a great race.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

I guess these cars are prohibitively expensive and without zero coverage by mainstream media, it probably doesn't add up. One should scrap lmp1 and do an lmp class with the lmp2 limitations in place. Honestly, no class grid should run less than 08-10 cars.

 

[Blimey]

I guess these cars are prohibitively expensive and without zero coverage by mainstream media, it probably doesn't add up. One should scrap lmp1 and do an lmp class with the lmp2 limitations in place. Honestly, no class grid should run less than 08-10 cars.

they should add LMP3 and GT3 to WEC.