Conway and Kobayashi combine to set Pole; Ford takes thrilling LMGTE Pro Pole
The headlines from Qualifying following a close and exciting session in which the top 5 LMP1 cars – representing three different teams using both Hybrid and Non-Hybrid technology – were separated by just 1.2 seconds, much closer than seen previously.
The qualifying results are a clear indication that the work being carried out by the regulators on Equivalence of Technology is paying dividends.
In LMGTE Pro, just 0.8 seconds separated the first 9 in class, with four different manufacturers filling the first four places.
• No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing car driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway takes pole position for 6 Hours of Shanghai
• Anglo/Japanese pair set average lap time of 1m42.931s to claim second pole position of the season
• Kobayashi sets fastest lap in No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID on a 1m42.708s
• No.8 car driven by Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima makes it another Toyota 1-2
• Rebellion Racing will start third as No.3 Rebellion R13-Gibson of André Lotterer and Bruno Senna set average of 1m43.218s
• Rebellion close to Toyota as they sit just 0.592s from pole and 0.1s off No.8 Toyota
• SMP Racing place fourth with Stéphane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev averaging 1m43.870s in No.17 BR Engineering BR1-AER
• No.3 Rebellion places fifth ahead of No.10 DragonSpeed entry
• Just 1.2 seconds separate the top five!
• LMGTE Pro pole goes to No.66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing as Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla combine to set average of 1m58.627s
• Mücke sets sensational fastest overall lap of 1m58.464s to snatch pole away from BMW and claims second pole of season for No.66 Ford GT
• No.81 BMW Team MTEK car shared by Martin Tomczyk and Nicky Catsburg had looked set for pole until dying moments
• Catsburg set scintillating initial fastest lap overall with a 1m58.441s.
• Dutch/German pair average 1m58.874s just 0.023s off the pole in their BMW M8 GTE
• Aston Martin place third with Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn in No.97 car 0.2s off class pole
• Porsche makes it four manufacturers in top four as Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen place fourth
• LMP2 pole falls to home heroes Jackie Chan DC Racing with Ho-Pin Tung and Gabriel Aubry claiming their first pole of the season in No.38 car
• Average time of 1m48.888 enough for pole as Aubry sets 1m48.653s best – 8 being a lucky number for the Chinese!
• Jackie Chan DC Racing 1-2 as No.37 car of Jazeman Jaafar and Nabil Jeffri takes second
• DragonSpeed place third ahead of points leading Signatech Alpine Matmut entry
• No.98 Aston Martin take a remarkable fifth consecutive pole at Shanghai but first LMGTE Am of 2018/19 Super Season as Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana combine to average 2m01.884s
• Pedro Lamy takes two stints at the wheel and sets outright best lap of 2m00.880s in dying moments
• No.88 Dempsey Proton Porsche is second as Khaled Al Qubaisi and Matteo Cairoli combine to set average time of 2m01.951s
All qualifying results can be found HERE.
The 6 Hours of Shanghai starts tomorrow, Sunday 19th November, at 11h00 local time
