While Toyota Gazoo Racing took the pole owing to ultimate pace with its low downforce configuration Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, courtesy of a single lap record from Kamui Kobayashi, pole for Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Nürburgring in high downforce spec was a bit more of a surprise.
Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez delivered the top spot in LMP1 and overall for the team not far from its Cologne, Germany headquarters in Saturday’s qualifying session with an average best time of 1:38.118. That put it just clear of the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley at 1:38.272.
With Toyota near its team headquarters and looking to return to winning after the No. 8 car won the first two races at Silverstone and Spa, and with Porsche’s No. 2 of Bernhard, Hartley and Earl Bamber having won at Le Mans but now racing on its home soil, it’s an interesting fight ahead on Sunday.
Although the TDS Racing-run No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 Gibson took the LMP2 pole at 1:45.001, it’ll face a steep uphill battle in the race. Roman Rusinov was assessed a three-minute in-race penalty to be served Sunday for his driving infringement at Le Mans, having taken out Khaled Al Qubaisi’s Porsche 911 RSR at the Porsche Curves there.
Rusinov shares the car with Pierre Thiriet and Ben Hanley, the latter driver standing in for Alex Lynn, who himself is replacing Lopez at the FIA Formula E Championship race weekend at the New York City ePrix.
This promotes the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca to net pole at 1:45.197 in the hands of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent. The LMP2 class winners and second place overall finishers now seek their third win in four FIA WEC races this year. Vaillante Rebellion’s No. 31 Oreca of Bruno Senna, Julien Canal and Filipe Albuquerque, the car having been repaired after contact with a GT car yesterday, qualified third.
Porsche’s mid-engined 911 RSR took its first FIA World Endurance Championship pole in GTE-Pro with the No. 92 car of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, one week after the new car took its first overall pole in IMSA courtesy of Dirk Werner at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Aston Martin Racing won the GTE-Am pole with Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy sharing the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8, in a car that will also feature Mathias Lauda in the lineup.
Sunday’s six-hour race begins at 7 a.m. ET.
QUALIFYING RESULTS: Overall, LMP1/LMP2, GTE-Pro/GTE-Am