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Audi delivers 1-2 shock in WEC qualifying

Speedcafe.com

By Speedcafe.com

Saturday 16th April, 2016 - 10:24pm
Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer have clinched pole for the opening WEC round at Silverstone in the car they will share with Benoit Treluyer

Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer have clinched pole for the opening WEC round at Silverstone in the car they will share with Benoit Treluyer

Audi has rocked Porsche by springing to a one-two result in qualifying for the opening round of the World Endurance Championship.

On a drying Silverstone track which followed a snow storm that had forced the cancellation of final practice, the #7 R18 e-tron quattro landed pole from its #8 stablemate.

Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler combined for a two-lap average of 1:53.20s in the 20-minute session to realise the end of Porsche’s domination in qualifying.

Porsche’s 919s were invincible in qualifying last season which stretched the Zuffenhausen maker’s run to 11 straight poles.

Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi fell just .10s short and will start the 6 Hour race in second.

The reigning champion #1 919 at the hands of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley finished almost a full second slower than the Audi and will start from third ahead of the #2 Porsche shared by Neel Jani and Romain Dumas in qualifying.

In LMP2, the #26 Oreca-Nissan took the top spot.

The #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird took pole in GTE Pro.

Rigon and Bird’s optimum two-lap average was 1.3s quicker than the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ford GT of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke was third fastest.

Klaus Bachler, substituting for Patrick Long, and Khaled Al Qubaisi were on pole for Abu Dhabi Proton Racing in GTE Am in their Porsche 911 RSR.

See below full Silverstone 6 Hour starting grid

1

M.Fässler/A.Lotterer/B.Tréluyer

Audi

1:53.204

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2

L.di Grassi/L.Duval/O.Jarvis

Audi

1:53.308

0.104

3

T.Bernhard/M.Webber/B.Hartley

Porsche

1:54.150

0.946

4

R.Dumas/N.Jani/M.Lieb

Porsche

1:54.266

1.062

5

S.Sarrazin/M.Conway/K.Kobayashi

Toyota

1:58.200

4.996

6

A.Davidson/S.Buemi/K.Nakajima

Toyota

2:00.109

6.905

7

S.Trummer/O.Webb/J.Rossiter

CLM/AER

2:08.332

15.128

8

R.Rusinov/N.Berthon/R.Rast

ORECA/Nissan

2:08.479

15.275

9

R.Dalziel/L.Derani/C.Cumming

Ligier/Nissan

2:09.632

16.428

10

R.González/F.Albuquerque/B.Senna

Ligier/Nissan

2:10.295

17.091

11

N.Minassian/M.Mediani

BR Engineering/Nissan

2:10.627

17.423

12

V.Petrov/K.Ladygin/V.Shaytar

BR Engineering/Nissan

2:11.023

17.819

13

M.Rao/R.Bradley/R.Merhi

ORECA/Nissan

2′:1.893

18.689

14

G.Menezes/N.Lapierre/S.Richelmi

Alpine/Nissan

2:12.221

19.017

15

D.Rigon/S.Bird

Ferrari

2:12.440

19.236

16

T.Graves/W.Stevens/J.Jakes

ORECA/Nissan

2:13.105

19.901

17

N.Leventis/D.Watts/J.Kane

Gibson/Nissan

2:13.729

20.525

18

R.Lietz/M.Christensen

Porsche

2:13.822

20.618

19

B.Johnson/S.Mücke/O.Pla

Ford

2:14.475

21.271

20

D.Cheng/H-Pin Tung/N.Panciatici

Alpine/Nissan

2:14.863

21.659

21

K.Al Qubaisi/D.Hansson/K.Bachler

Porsche

2:15.102

21.898

22

M.Franchitti/A.Priaulx/H.Tincknell

Ford

2:17.367

24.163

23

C.Ried/W.Henzler/J.Camathias

Porsche

2:17.399

24.195

24

Y.Yamagishi/P.Ragues/P.Ruberti

Chevrolet

2:18.344

25.140

25

M.Wainwright/A.Carroll/B.Barker

Porsche

2:19.084

25.880

26

F.Perrodo/E.Collard/R.Águas

Ferrari

2:20.131

26.927

27

S.Sharp/E.Brown/J.van Overbeek

Ligier/Nissan

2:20.410

27.206

28

R.Stanaway/F.Rees

Aston Martin

2:21.091

27.887

29

N.Thiim/M.Sørensen/D.Turner

Aston Martin

2:22.252

29.048

30

P.D.Lana/P.Lamy/M.Lauda

Aston Martin

2:23.005

29.801

31

N.Prost/N.Piquet Jr./N.Heidfeld

Rebellion/AER

2:07.841

14.637

32

G.Bruni/J.Calado

Ferrari

2:11.589

18.385

33

M.Tuscher/D.Kraihamer/A.Imperatori

Rebellion/AER

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