6H COTA: Pole for Rebellion Racing; Aston Martin qualifies top in LMGTE Pro
Below are the main headlines from Qualifying at round 5 of FIA WEC Season 8, the 6 Hours of COTA.
LMP1
- Rebellion Racing take third pole of WEC Season 8 as No.1 Rebellion R13 Gibson car driven by Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato combine to set average time of 1:47.530
- Frenchman Nato sets fastest lap of weekend so far on a 1:47.387
- No.7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway start second with combined best lap time of 1:49.161
- Sister No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID entry driven by Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley place third with average time of 1:49.431
LMGTE Pro
- In LMGTE Pro, the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim take pole position with the “Dane Train” taking best average lap time of 2:00.733
- Thiim posts best lap out of the LMGTE Pro drivers with a time of 2:00.725
- No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR joins Aston Martin on front row as pairing Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre post a combined time of 2:00.952 – just 0.219s adrift of pole-sitters Aston Martin
- Third in class was the No.97 Aston Martin of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin, followed by the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR belonging to Richard Lietz and and Gianmaria Bruni
- AF Corse finished fifth and sixth in the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with newcomers Corvette Racing seventh in the brand new Chevrolet Corvette CR.8
The highlights of Lone Star Le Mans' qualifying sessions.#WEC #6HCota pic.twitter.com/bhOw33nSx3
— WEC 🤠 (@FIAWEC) February 23, 2020
LMP2
- LMP2 sees Cool Racing on pole for the second time this season as Nicolas Lapierre and Antonin Borga set an average time of 1:49.910 in the ORECA 07 Gibson car
- Swiss team ahead of rivals United Autosports No. 22 ORECA 07 qualified by Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque
- No.36 Signatech Alpine Elf will start third as Thomas Laurent and Pierre Ragues post a combined time of 1:50.984 at the wheel of an Alpine A470 Gibson
LMGTE Am
- The No. 56 Team Project 1 car qualifies on pole as Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti take the best average time of 2:02.784 in the Porsche 911 RSR
- Aston Martin Racing second in COTA Qualifying as Ross Gunn and Paul Dalla Lana post a combined time of 2:02.830 in the Aston Martin Vantage
- Britain’s Ross Gunn clocks the fastest lap of the entire LMGTE Am grid with a time of 2:01.281
- Third is the No. 90 TF Sport entry making it two Aston Martin cars in the top three
Tomorrow’s 6-hour race will commence at 12h00 local time.
Provisional results can be found HERE
