Shanghai: Both Porsche 919 Hybrids on front row again

No. 17 Porsche on pole
No. 17 Porsche on pole

Round seven of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will also see two Porsche 919 Hybrids start from front row of the grid. On the Shanghai International Circuit car number 17 of Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU) took pole position for the fourth time this season. The sister car number 18 of Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) qualified second for Sunday's six-hour race in China.

In the WEC the average of the best laps of two drivers counts for the grid position. In Shanghai Hartley/Webber and Dumas/Lieb were the qualifying drivers. In bright sunshine Brendon managed to set a new record for prototypes on the 5.451 kilometer long Grand Prix circuit by lapping in 1:42.621 minutes. The average lap time for the number 17 car was 1:42.719 minutes, their number 18 team mates' average lap time was 1:43.488 minutes.

In the morning, during the third free practice session, Brendon had done an impressive lap already. A time of 1:42.799 minutes had put the number 17 car on top of the time sheets. Dumas/Jani/Lieb came second and, for precautionary reasons, had their combustion engine changed for qualifying.

Round seven of eight will start on Sunday at 11:00 hrs local time (04:00 hrs CET). The TV channel Eurosport will broadcast the entire race and the podium ceremony live. Live feed, timing and more is available at the FIA WEC App. Live features such as on-board cameras, timing and GPS tracking are also available in the Porsche Motorsport App (free of charge).

Thanks to an advantage of a now 54 point margin ahead of Audi in the constructors' standings, mathematically Porsche could secure an early title win on Sunday in China. It would be the first Constructors' World Championship title since 1986 for Porsche and the 13th in the brand's endurance racing history.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Porsche Quotes after qualifying:
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: "This is potentially our most important pole position this season. Having both cars on the front row gives us the best conditions for a race in which we have the chance to secure the constructors' World Championship. Many thanks to the entire team for their great commitment. We now have to stay focused for the race as well and then we should come home with a good result to achieve our target."

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "Thanks to an outstanding team performance we remain unbeaten in qualifying and have both Porsche 919 on the front row for the seventh time. Since the first free practice here we kept improving the car and also the lap times from our long runs were encouraging. We will now prepare carefully for the race. We expect some rain overnight which might give us extra challenges."

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid number 17
Brendon Hartley (25, New Zealand): "For Mark and me it was a perfect qualifying with everything going according to plan. I made a mistake in turn one on my lap but nevertheless both of us had very good lap times straight away and that is crucial here because with the abrasive tarmac you don't get a second chance with your tires. The team did a fantastic job to give us a car more than four seconds quicker than last year's."

Mark Webber (39, Australia): "It is great for Porsche and our team to have both cars on the front row again. Brendon and I had a great time in qualifying. It was a good battle between us and in the end it was safe with a very strong average of our two timed laps. However, qualifying is a bit of show business in endurance racing; the main race is tomorrow and there is some wet weather around."

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid number 18
Romain Dumas (37, France): "On my qualifying lap the first two sectors were really good but then a Rebellion got into my way. However, we are second and that is good for the team."

Marc Lieb (35, Germany): "It was all okay. I started with an installation lap because we wanted to double check the newly fitted engine and did one flying lap afterwards. I lost some time in traffic but still it was fine."

Lineup

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Behind
1 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 1m42.719s 0.000s
2 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 1m43.488s 0.769s
3 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 1m44.200s 1.481s
4 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 1m44.645s 1.926s
5 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota 1m45.776s 3.057s
6 LMP1 A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 1m45.962s 3.243s
7 LMP1 A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, M.Tuscher Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 1m49.418s 6.699s
8 LMP1 N.Prost, M.Beche Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 1m50.942s 8.223s
9 LMP1 S.Trummer, P.Kaffer Team ByKolles CLM/AER 1m52.069s 9.350s
10 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 1m52.763s 10.044s
11 LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Tandy KCMG ORECA/Nissan 1m53.345s 10.626s
12 LMP2 G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 1m53.390s 10.671s
13 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, C.Cumming Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 1m53.600s 10.881s
14 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, T.Dillmann Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 1m53.747s 11.028s
15 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 1m54.775s 12.056s
16 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Gibson/Nissan 1m55.205s 12.486s
17 LMP2 D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, A.Brundle Pegasus Racing Morgan/Nissan 1m56.624s 13.905s
18 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 1m57.432s 14.713s
19 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 2m02.243s 19.524s
20 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 2m02.508s 19.789s
21 GTE Pro A.MacDowall, F.Rees, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m02.540s 19.821s
22 GTE Pro P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 2m03.048s 20.329s
23 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 2m03.352s 20.633s
24 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m03.393s 20.674s
25 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m04.728s 22.009s
26 GTE Am F.Castellacci, L.Griffin, S.Hall Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m04.858s 22.139s
27 GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, N.Sylvest Larbre Competition Chevrolet 2m04.874s 22.155s
28 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 2m05.455s 22.736s
29 GTE Am V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 2m05.556s 22.837s
30 GTE Am P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey Racing – Proton Porsche 2m06.196s 23.477s
31 GTE Am C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 2m11.851s 29.132s

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