Porsche powers to 1-2-3 in Spa qualifying

Porsche has completed a stunning shut-out of qualifying for the Spa 6 Hours by claiming the top three positions at the second round of the World Endurance Championship.

Weissach’s stranglehold at the front of the grid was headed by the #17 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.

The pair achieved a record two-lap average of 1:54.767s in the machine they share with Australian Mark Webber.

In a big shock, the freshly entered third #19 Porsche LMP1 saw F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy fall just .2s short of claiming pole on debut in the car they share with Kiwi Earl Bamber.

Neel Jani and Marc Lieb qualified third in the #18 919 which is also crewed by Romain Dumas.

Fritz Enzinger, Porsche LMP1 program vice president, summed up the feeling in the camp after the decision to stretch its resources by adding a third car in preparation for a potential 17th outright victory at Le Mans next month.

“This result is almost unbelievable and we have achieved it on what probably is the most demanding race track of the entire season,” Enzinger said.

Talented Kiwi Hartley admitted he was at one with the 919 which is now operating in the highest energy class, 8 megajoules.

“For me my lap was the best I have ever done in the 919. The car was just excellent and every session has gone smoothly for us so far,” Hartley said.

Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler will start on the outside of the second row in the #7 Audi after seeing an average qualifying lap pace of 1:55.540s.

The sister R18 e-tron of Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval was fifth ahead of the #1 Toyota TS040 of Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi.

In LMP2, the #26 G-Drive of Roman Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal topped the class.

Aston Martin Racing will start from pole in the GTE classes with the #99 and #98 Vantage topping the Pro and Am sections.

See below full Spa 6 Hours grid

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1:54.767s	–
2	LMP1	N.Hulkenberg, E.Bamber, N.Tandy	Porsche Team	Porsche	1:55.025s	0.258s
3	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1:55.284s	0.517s
4	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1:55.540s	0.773s
5	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1:56.541s	1.774s
6	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1:57.487s	2.720s
7	LMP1	A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1:57.929s	3.162s
8	LMP1	F.Albuquerque, M.Bonanomi, R.Rast	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1:58.000s	3.233s
9	LMP1	S.Trummer, V.Liuzzi, C.Klien	Team ByKolles	CLM/AER	2:07.286s	12.519s
10	LMP2	R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	2:07.761s	–
11	LMP2	M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Lapierre	KCMG	ORECA/Nissan	2:07.970s	–
12	LMP2	P.Ragues, O.Webb, Z.Amberg	Team SARD Morand	Morgan/SARD	2:08.055s	–
13	LMP2	G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	2:08.258s	–
14	LMP2	S.Dolan, M.Evans, H.Tincknell	JOTA Sport	Gibson/Nissan	2:08.329s	–
15	LMP2	N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	2:08.901s	–
16	LMP2	S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	2:09.989s	–
17	LMP2	N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Dome/Nissan	2:11.655s	–
18	LMP2	E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	2:16.721s	–
19	GTE Pro	A.MacDowall, F.Rees, R.Stanaway	Aston Martin Racing V8	Aston Martin	2:16.840s	–
20	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, T.Vilander	AF Corse	Ferrari	2:16.910s	–
21	GTE Pro	D.Turner, S.Mucke, R.Bell	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2:17.231s	–
22	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	2:17.526s	–
23	GTE Pro	C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen, J.Adam	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2:17.757s	–
24	GTE Pro	S.Muller, K.Estre	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	2:18.025s	–
25	GTE Pro	F.Makowiecki, R.Lietz	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	2:18.038s	–
26	LMP2	J.Nicolet, J-M.Merlin, E.Maris	Oak Racing	Ligier/Nissan	2:18.487s	–
27	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2m19.578s	–
28	GTE Am	G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	2:20.694s	–
29	GTE Am	C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	2:21.432s	–
30	GTE Am	D.Cameron, M.Griffin, A.Mortimer	AF Corse	Ferrari	2:21.893s	–
31	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	2:21.958s	–
32	GTE Am	V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov	SMP Racing	Ferrari	2:22.909s	–
33	GTE Am	P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche	2:23.303s	–
34	GTE Am	F.Castellacci, R.Goethe, S.Hall	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2:24.519s	–

See below qualifying highlights video