Toyota Locks Out Spa Front Row

Pole winning #7 Toyota
Pole winning #7 Toyota

Toyota Gazoo Racing locked out the front row of the grid for the next to last round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps.

Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi drove the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to its third pole with a two-driver average time of 1:53.747 on a wet track.

Their teammates in the No. 8 Toyota, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi, combined for a 1:54.243 average to go second-quickest and just under half a second shy of pole.

SMP Racing placed third and fifth as No.17 starts ahead of No.11 sister car

It will be fourth and sixth start for Rebellion Racing as the No.1 car eclipsed the No.3 entry in session that saw light rain showers

No. 67 Ford Grabs Second Spa Pole

Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx
Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell drove the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT to pole position at Spa today, taking the extra point for pole and setting themselves up for a strong start to tomorrow’s six-hour World Endurance Championship race. This is the second pole position at Spa for the British duo during the WEC Super Season.

Priaulx combined with Harry Tincknell for an average of 2m12.797s to edge out Aston Martin Racing's Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn by just six-hundredths of a second, with early pace-setter BMW being left to settle for third and fourth in class.

“Today’s result is actually a bit of a surprise!" said Ford WEC Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell. “When we saw the time the BMW did we thought we couldn’t match that but the strategy of doing three runs paid off very well and Andy and Harry both did mega laps, delivering a fantastic result for the team. It’s a shame #66 didn’t quite get the perfect lap but I’m really happy with the team’s performance."

“I’m so pleased with that, I’m shaking!" said Tincknell. “The car felt unbelievable in that session, as if it was running on rails. We’ve had a pretty quick car in the dry all weekend. We tweaked it a bit after each practice session and it still needed a little bit more after the last session this morning and I have to say that Wilks (David Wilcock, Race Engineer) and the engineering team hit the nail right on the head.

“We went all out to get pole today and we’re happy to take the extra point," he continued. “It’s supposed to snow overnight and then it’s supposed to rain but let’s just see what happens tomorrow. We know the car is quick in the dry and we know that if we can turn the tyre on in the wet we have a fast car there too. We’re starting from the front which is always the best view, especially when it is wet!"

A late improvement from Salih Yoluc in the #90 Aston Martin Vantage gave TF Sport pole in GTE-Am, recovering enough time on a second stint in the car to overhaul the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR that had sat on provisional pole.

Weather

Wintry weather is forecast at Spa overnight, which could make for an interesting race day for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Front-Row Quotes

Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi on pole
Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi on pole

Mike Conway (TS050 HYBRID #7): “It was a nice lap. Kamui was quick; he put in a really good lap this morning and again in qualifying. I knew the pressure was on! The car felt strong all through the lap and I was happy to be a little faster at the end. All credit to the engineers and the team for doing such a good job all weekend. Tomorrow is going to be tricky with the conditions so it’s great to start in the right position."

Kamui Kobayashi (TS050 HYBRID #7): “I am very happy to be on pole again. We knew that during my lap there was a high chance of some rain but we had to take the chance when the track was dry. Unfortunately there were a few rain drops just at the end of my lap, in the last corner, so it wasn’t perfect. But it was enough and Mike did a great job. Thanks to him and the team."

Sebastien Buemi (TS050 HYBRID #8): “Car #7 did a good job so congratulations to them; they did very well and it’s nice for the team to be one-two on the grid. We are expecting the weather to be completely different tomorrow. We had a taste of this in second practice on Thursday so we are reviewing all the data from that session to prepare ourselves as well as possible; our focus is on the race."

Kazuki Nakajima (TS050 HYBRID #8): “Considering the showers this afternoon, we were fortunate that we could do our laps pretty much on a dry track. It seemed a little bit harder for our car to set a good qualifying time compared to the sister car but for the team a one-two is the perfect result. We expect challenging weather for the race; we need to make sure we finish and grab as many points as possible."

Lineup

1. #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid (Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez) 1m53.683s

2. #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid (Alonso/Buemi/Nakajima) + 0.496s
3. #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 AER (Sarrazin/Orudzhev/Sirotkin) + 0.964s
4. #3 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R13 Gibson (Berthon/Laurent/Menezes) + 1.893s

5. #11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 AER (Aleshin/Petrov/Vandoorne) + 2.271s
6. #1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R13 Gibson (Jani/Lotterer/Senna) + 2.274s
7. #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson (Rusinov/Van Uitert/Vergne) + 6.927s
8. #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (Tung/Aubry/Richelmi)
 + 7.478s
9. #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (Heinemeier-Hansson/King/Stevens) + 7.811s
10. #31 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson (Gonzalez/Maldonado/Davidson)
 + 8.069s
11. #36 Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine A470 Gibson (Lapierre/Negrao/Thiriet) + 8.085s
12. #4 ByKolles Racing Team ENSO CLM P1/01 (Dillmann/Webb/Ruberti)
 + 8.499s
13. #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara P217 Gibson (Van Eerd/Van der Garde/De Vries) + 10.212s
14. #28 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson (Perrodo/Vaxiviere/Nato) + 11.220s
15. #50 Larbre Competition Ligier JSP217 Gibson (Creed/Ricci/Boulle) + 12.487s

GTE QUALIFYING

1. #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK Ford GT (Priaulx/Tincknell) 2m12.797s
2. #97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR (Lynn/Martin) + 0.067s
3. #82 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE (Farfus/Felix da Costa) + 0.092s
4. #81 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE (Tomczyk/Catsburg) + 0.428s
5. #95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR (Sørensen/Thiim) + 0.456s
6. #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK Ford GT (Mucke/Pla) + 0.507s
7. #92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Christensen/Estre) + 0.798s
8. #91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR (Lietz/Bruni) + 0.951s
9. #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Pier Guidi/Calado) + 1.175s
10. #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Rigon/Bird) + 1.297s
11. #90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage (Yoluc/Alers-Hankey/Eastwood) + 3.176s
12. #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR (Roda/Roda Jr./Cairoli) + 3.286s
13. #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR (Bergmeister/Lindsey/Perfetti) + 3.505s
14. #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR (Ried/Pera/Campbell) + 4.120s

15. #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage (Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda) + 4.208s
16. #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE (Flohr/Castellacci/Fisichella) + 4.288s
17. #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE (Perez-Companc/Cressoni/Griffin) + 4.403s
18. #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR (Wainwright/Barker/Preining) + 6.340s
19. #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE (Ishikawa/Beretta/Cheever) no time

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com