WEC: Audi Shock Porsche To Take Silverstone Pole

[Jack Hunsley]

Audi have turned the form books upside down as their two cars made the best of a wet Silverstone qualifying session to lock out the front row for tomorrow's WEC season opener, their first pole position since 2013.

Despite having dominated every practice session so far this weekend, when it came to the punch the #1 and #2 Porsche's proved to be unable to match the wet weather pace of the Audi's, with the #7 car of Fässler, Lotterer, and Tréluyer coming out on top. The #8 Audi followed up in second place, as the #1 and #2 Porsche's will lineup together on the second row ahead of both Toyota's.

As for the privateers it was Team ByKolles who triumphed after Rebellion suffered a myriad of problems on both cars, with the #12 and #13 machines failing to post a lap time. Thus both Rebellion's will start from the back of the grid.

In LMP2, the reigning champions G-Drive will lead the class as the lights go out tomorrow. Whilst a superb lap from Pipo Derani, a 2:07.315 to be exact, put Extreme Motorsport in with a chance at pole, a slower lap from Chris Cumming's dropped the American outfit to second in class. In third place will be the RGR Sport entry, who nudged out both SMP Racing cars, whilst Manor will start from 5th and 6th.

Ferrari once again ruled in the first of the GT classes, but not without issues. Whilst the #71 car of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird stormed to pole position, the sister #51 was unable to compete after Gianmaria Bruni was unable to complete a lap, thus relegating the AF Corse entry to the back of the grid. Instead, the sole GT Pro Porsche will line up 2nd in class, a full 1.2 seconds slower than the Ferrari's, with the Ford GT's in tandem just behind.

Finally, in GTE Am it was the #88 Abu-Dhabi Proton entry that took pole. with Khalid Al-Quabaisi and Klaus Bachler's combined lap time putting their Porsche two seconds clear of the KCMG entry.

6 Hours of Silverstone Official Standings - Qualifying

1. LMP1 - #7 Audi Sport Team Joest (Fässler, Lotterer, Tréluyer) - 1:53.204
2. LMP1 - #8 Audi Sport Team Joest (Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis) - 1:53.308
3. LMP1 - #1 Porsche Team (Bernhard, Webber, Hartley) - 1:54.150
4. LMP1 - #2 Porsche Team (Dumas, Jani, Lieb) - 1:54.266
5. LMP1 - #6 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi) -1:58.200
6. LMP1 - #5 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima) - 2:00.109
7. LMP1 - #4 ByKolles Racing Team (Trummer, Webb, Rossiter) - 2:08.332
8. LMP2 - #26 G-Drive Racing (Rusinov, Berthon, Rast) - 2:08.479
9. LMP2 - #31 Extreme Speed Motorsport (Dalziel, Derani, Cumming) - 2:09.632
10. LMP2 - #43 RGR Sport by Morand (Gonzalez, Albuquerque, Senna) - 2:10.295
11. LMP2 - #27 SMP Racing (Minassian, Mediani) - 2:10.627
12. LMP2 - #37 SMP Racing (Petrov, Ladygin, Shaytar) - 2:11.893
13. LMP2 - #45 Manor (Rao, Bradley, Merhi) - 2:11.893
14. LMP2 - #36 Signatech Alpine (Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi) - 2:12.221
15. GTE Pro - #71 AF Corse (Rigon, Bird) - 2:12.440
16. LMP2 - #44 Manor (Graves, Stevens, Jakes) - 2:13.105
17. LMP2 - #42 Strakka Racing (Leventis, Watts, Kane) - 2:13.729
18. GTE Pro - #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing (Lietz, Christensen) - 2:13.822
19. GTE Pro - #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Johnson, Muecke, Pla) - 2:14.475
20. LMP2 - #35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine (Cheng, Tung, Panciatici) - 2:14.863
21. GTE Am - #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing (Al Qubaisi, Hansson, Bachler) - 2:15.102
22. GTE Pro - #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell) - 2:17.367
23. GTE Am - #78 KCMG (Ried, Henzler, Camathias) - 2:17.367
24. GTE Am - #50 Larbre Competition (Yamagishi, Ragues, Ruberti) - 2:18.344
25. GTE Am - #86 Gulf Racing UK (Wainwright, Carroll, Barker) - 2:19.084
26. GTE Am - #83 AF Corse (Perrodo, Collard, Aguas) - 2:20.131
27. LMP2 - #30 Extreme Speed Motorsport (Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek) - 2:20.410
28. GTE Pro - #97 Aston Martin Racing (Stanaway, Rees) - 2:21.091
29. GTE Pro - #95 Aston Martin Racing (Thiim, Sørensen, Turner) - 2:22.252
30. GTE Am - #98 Aston Martin Racing (Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda) - 2:23.005
31. LMP1 - #12 Rebellion Racing (Prost, Piquet Jr, Heidfeld) - No Time Set
32. GTE Pro - #51 AF Corse (Bruni, Calado) - No Time Set
33. LMP1 - #13 Rebellion Racing (Tuscher, Kraihamer, Imperatori) - No Time Set​

 

[Brownninja97]

you know what. ByKolles can take the win this season

 

[Dan Allen]

Wow, Audi very nearly a full second faster than Porsche?! That's more like it!

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

It was raining. The true pace is shown now. I don't think Porsche will be challenged much this year.

 

[Falk Massmann]

It was raining. The true pace is shown now. I don't think Porsche will be challenged much this year.

We will see. I guarantuee you Audi is up for a challenge. Porsche won´t have easy races or at least say dominate the field, not going to happen with Audi at their heals.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Well, at least today Porsche really messed up. Seem to have trouble in traffic, while their pace is much faster than Audi's normaly.

 

[Brownninja97]

Janis pace was slower then last years

tbh Porsche had a really bad day all around. Someone is gonna have to bite the pillow for the suspension problems.

 

[Jimlaad43]

It was raining. The true pace is shown now. I don't think Porsche will be challenged much this year.

*Melted snow

 

[Brownninja97]

More shock. Porsche win Silverstone.

Audi failed post race inspection

 

[fortyfivekev]

Janis pace was slower then last years...

There was ~10% reduction in fuel flow this season for the factory cars so pretty amazing that they kept about the same pace as last year.

A shame the Audi was DQ'ed as the drivers drove really well. Not super surprising though with a brand new car and very little dry running in practice.