bigbadbrother
09-20-2014, 04:47 PM
John Dagys
Toyota's Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi teamed to claim pole for Saturday's Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas, following a start-stop and mixed condition qualifying session for the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid jumped to the top of the time charts, thanks to Buemi's 1:49.156 lap time recorded just seconds from the end of the session. It came following a red flag, which set up a four-minute shootout to the checkered flag.
Davidson and Buemi combined to complete a best four-lap average of 1:49.093, which was a considerable 1.190 seconds quicker than the Porsche Team pairing of Romain Dumas and Neel Jani, who rallied to second after one of his laps was disallowed due to exceeding the ERS limit.
While it marked the Japanese manufacturer's third pole of the season, it was the first for the LMP1-H championship-leading crew of Davidson and Buemi, who will be joined by Nicolas Lapierre in Saturday's race.
It was a disappointing qualifying session for Audi, which topped the time charts in two of the three Free Practice sessions, yet ended up qualifying outside of the top-three, with average lap times nearly one-second slower than earlier today.
The No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler was 4th, while the No. 1 car of Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi was demoted to 6th after one of the Brazilian's quick laps was disallowed due to exceeding the fuel consumption.
Audi reported computer glitches for both of the diesel-powered cars in qualifying.
Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber, meanwhile, put the No. 20 Porsche third on the grid, while the No. 7 Toyota, qualified by Stephane Sarrazin and LMP1 debutant Mike Conway, completed the top-five overall and in class.
LMP1-L class pole honors went to the No. 13 Rebellion R-One Toyota of Dominik Kraihamer and Fabio Leimer, who combined for a 1:54.665 average.
It came following an electrical issue for the sister Rebellion entry of Nick Heidfeld, while the Lotus CRM P1/01 AER did not set a time due to gearbox issues.
G-Drive Racing collected its third LMP2 class pole in four races, but the first with its debuting Ligier JS P2 Nissan. Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla steered the No. 26 entry to a 1:56.075 average, with the Russian driver overcoming tricky conditions in his run.
The pairing, who will be joined by Julien Canal tomorrow, edged out the No. 47 KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan of Richard Bradley and Tsugio Matsuda by 0.296 seconds.
Extreme Speed Motorsports qualified for its first FIA WEC race in third, with Ryan Dalziel and Scott Sharp handling duties in the No. 30 HPD ARX-03b they'll share with Ed Brown.
AF Corse scored its fourth consecutive pole in GTE-Pro, following a tactical run by the defending champions.
Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander combined for a four-lap average of 2:06.456 in the separate GT-only qualifying session, which also started in damp conditions before drying out.
While Bruni recorded his two timed laps early, the Italian returned to the wheel of the No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia with less than five minutes to go, improving on his best laps, which made the difference.
The duo edged out the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE of Darren Turner and Stefan Muecke by 0.638 seconds, with the Fred Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet-driven No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 ending up third.
Nick Tandy and Joerg Bergmeister (No. 91 Porsche) and Fernando Rees and Alex Macdowall (No. 99 Aston Martin) completed the top-five in class in the action-packed qualifying session.
Of note, Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor qualified the No. 65 Corvette C7.R seventh in class out of seven, with its 2:08.674 average more than two seconds slower than the AF Corse duo's pole time.
The battle for GTE-Am pole honors also came down to the closing seconds of the session, with ProSpeed Competition taking the top spot in the team's first race with a Porsche 911 RSR.
FIA WEC: All you need to know about this weekend's Six Hours of COTA
Matthieu Vaxiviere and Emmanuel Collard teamed for an average of 2:08.271, less than one-tenth ahead of the No. 95 Aston Martin pairing of Richie Stanaway and Kristian Poulsen, which will start second in class.
It marked the first FIA WEC pole for Belgian squad, which started the season with a 997-based Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Vaxiviere and Collard will share the wheel with Francois Perrodo on Saturday.
The top-five in GTE-Am was completed by Ferraris from AF Corse and 8Star Motorsports, with the No. 61 car ahead of the Nos. 90 and 81, respectively.
Toyota's Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi teamed to claim pole for Saturday's Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas, following a start-stop and mixed condition qualifying session for the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid jumped to the top of the time charts, thanks to Buemi's 1:49.156 lap time recorded just seconds from the end of the session. It came following a red flag, which set up a four-minute shootout to the checkered flag.
Davidson and Buemi combined to complete a best four-lap average of 1:49.093, which was a considerable 1.190 seconds quicker than the Porsche Team pairing of Romain Dumas and Neel Jani, who rallied to second after one of his laps was disallowed due to exceeding the ERS limit.
While it marked the Japanese manufacturer's third pole of the season, it was the first for the LMP1-H championship-leading crew of Davidson and Buemi, who will be joined by Nicolas Lapierre in Saturday's race.
It was a disappointing qualifying session for Audi, which topped the time charts in two of the three Free Practice sessions, yet ended up qualifying outside of the top-three, with average lap times nearly one-second slower than earlier today.
The No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler was 4th, while the No. 1 car of Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi was demoted to 6th after one of the Brazilian's quick laps was disallowed due to exceeding the fuel consumption.
Audi reported computer glitches for both of the diesel-powered cars in qualifying.
Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber, meanwhile, put the No. 20 Porsche third on the grid, while the No. 7 Toyota, qualified by Stephane Sarrazin and LMP1 debutant Mike Conway, completed the top-five overall and in class.
LMP1-L class pole honors went to the No. 13 Rebellion R-One Toyota of Dominik Kraihamer and Fabio Leimer, who combined for a 1:54.665 average.
It came following an electrical issue for the sister Rebellion entry of Nick Heidfeld, while the Lotus CRM P1/01 AER did not set a time due to gearbox issues.
G-Drive Racing collected its third LMP2 class pole in four races, but the first with its debuting Ligier JS P2 Nissan. Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla steered the No. 26 entry to a 1:56.075 average, with the Russian driver overcoming tricky conditions in his run.
The pairing, who will be joined by Julien Canal tomorrow, edged out the No. 47 KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan of Richard Bradley and Tsugio Matsuda by 0.296 seconds.
Extreme Speed Motorsports qualified for its first FIA WEC race in third, with Ryan Dalziel and Scott Sharp handling duties in the No. 30 HPD ARX-03b they'll share with Ed Brown.
AF Corse scored its fourth consecutive pole in GTE-Pro, following a tactical run by the defending champions.
Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander combined for a four-lap average of 2:06.456 in the separate GT-only qualifying session, which also started in damp conditions before drying out.
While Bruni recorded his two timed laps early, the Italian returned to the wheel of the No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia with less than five minutes to go, improving on his best laps, which made the difference.
The duo edged out the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE of Darren Turner and Stefan Muecke by 0.638 seconds, with the Fred Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet-driven No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 ending up third.
Nick Tandy and Joerg Bergmeister (No. 91 Porsche) and Fernando Rees and Alex Macdowall (No. 99 Aston Martin) completed the top-five in class in the action-packed qualifying session.
Of note, Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor qualified the No. 65 Corvette C7.R seventh in class out of seven, with its 2:08.674 average more than two seconds slower than the AF Corse duo's pole time.
The battle for GTE-Am pole honors also came down to the closing seconds of the session, with ProSpeed Competition taking the top spot in the team's first race with a Porsche 911 RSR.
FIA WEC: All you need to know about this weekend's Six Hours of COTA
Matthieu Vaxiviere and Emmanuel Collard teamed for an average of 2:08.271, less than one-tenth ahead of the No. 95 Aston Martin pairing of Richie Stanaway and Kristian Poulsen, which will start second in class.
It marked the first FIA WEC pole for Belgian squad, which started the season with a 997-based Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Vaxiviere and Collard will share the wheel with Francois Perrodo on Saturday.
The top-five in GTE-Am was completed by Ferraris from AF Corse and 8Star Motorsports, with the No. 61 car ahead of the Nos. 90 and 81, respectively.