WEC: Alpine nips Toyotas for pole at Portimao

Alpine Elf Matmut claimed its first-ever overall pole position for round two of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, the 8 Hours of Portimão.

Matthieu Vaxiviere claimed the top spot by less than a tenth of a second from the best of the Toyotas in the hands of Brendon Hartley.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will start the 8 Hours of Portimao from second and third on the grid with its new GR010 HYBRID Hypercars after narrowly missing pole position in an exciting qualifying for the second round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Sunday’s race is a landmark event for Toyota which celebrates its 100th World Championship sportscar start since its Group C debut in the 1983 Fuji 1000km. Following a very competitive qualifying both cars are firmly in contention for another victory in Portugal on Sunday, having already won the season-opening 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last month.

Spa winners Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, in the #8 GR010 HYBRID, left it late to take second place, just 0.094secs adrift of the #36 Alpine which set a pole position time of 1mins 30.364secs.

World Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López will start the race from third place in their #7 GR010 HYBRID after a best lap 0.176secs from pole. WEC Hypercar debutants Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus will start from 11th.

The new Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH ended up only 11th in the times behind seven LMP2 cars despite an improvement to 1m32.167s from Richard Westbrook on his second run.

LMGTE Pro

Porsche takes the top spot in the LMGTE Pro class as they continue a close fight with historic rivals Ferrari, as Kevin Estre takes second consecutive pole.

Kevin Estre sets the fastest lap to claim second consecutive pole position with a 1m37.986 in No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Estre set two lap times that would have been good enough for pole as No.92 team continues 100% points success in 2021 so far

James Calado will start second on the grid with 1m38.359s lap in No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The No.91 Porsche driven by Gimmi Bruni starts third but No.52 Ferrari had difficult session and will start at rear of grid

Qualifying Results

Pos Drivers Car Class Time Behind
1 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1’30.364 0.000
2 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 – Hybrid HYPERCAR 1’30.458 0.094
3 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 – Hybrid HYPERCAR 1’30.540 0.176
4 Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne
Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.210 0.846
5 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.255 0.891
6 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.545 1.181
7 Philip Hanson
Wayne Boyd
Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.598 1.234
8 Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.648 1.284
9 Jakub Smiechowski
Louis Deletraz
Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.737 1.373
10 Esteban Garcia
Mathias Beche
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’31.854 1.490
11 Ryan Briscoe
Romain Dumas
Richard Westbrook
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1’32.167 1.803
12 Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’32.526 2.162
13 Jan Magnussen
Anders Fjordbach
Dennis Andersen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’32.626 2.262
14 Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch
Beitske Visser
Oreca 07 LMP2 1’32.748 2.384
15 Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb
Tom Jackson
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1’34.224 3.860
16 Kevin Estre
Neel Jani
Michael Christensen
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE PRO 1’37.986 0.000s
17 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1’38.359 0.373
18 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE PRO 1’38.389 0.403
19 Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1’38.743 0.757
20 Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli
Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE AM 1’40.191 2.205
21 Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE AM 1’40.236 2.250
22 Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’40.885 2.899
23 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’41.001 3.015
24 Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Manuela Gostner
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’41.085 3.099
25 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’41.141 3.155
26 Takeshi Kimura
Mikkel Jensen
Scott Andrews
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’41.276 3.290
27 Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus
Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1’41.366 3.380
28 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1’41.499 3.513
29 Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE AM 1’41.604 3.618
30 Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1’41.993 4.007
31 Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini
Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1’42.521 4.535
32 Dominique Bastien
Marco Seefried
Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE AM 1’43.374 5.388
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