The #17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber endured a damp qualifying to take pole position for the 6 Hours of Spa and in the process lead a 1-2-3 for Porsche
Webber sat out qualifying at Spa, allowing team mate Brendon Hartley to set about breaking the hearts of Audi and Toyota early in the session by recording a 1:54.779 – already smashing the WEC qualifying lap record before Timo Bernhard put pole well and truly out of reach with a 1:54.767.
Porsche closest competitor was the #7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer who encouragingly just half a second off Porsche’s pace. Whether the high-downforce configured Audi can bridge the gap to the superior energy recovery systems of Stuttgart with be a fascinating prospect.
Toyota however have their work cut out for them, with the pairing of Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson only managing a 1:57.48. Buemi and Davidson will have a long afternoon tomorrow with their team-mate Kazuki Nakajima ruled out of weekend’s competition after fracturing his vertabra during free practice – sustained in a collision with the Audi of Oliver Jarvis.
It was an emotional pole for Bernhard, who was sporting a Stefan Bellof commemorative helmet livery to honour his compatriot (on the 30th anniversary of his passing at Spa in 1985). After qualifying, Timo reflected on his achievement, saying that he hoped Bellof “would be proud.”
Roman Rusinov secured the LMP2 pole for G-Drive Racing ahead alongside Sam Bird and Julien Canal after an unexpected on-track battle with the # 47 KCMG Oreca of Nicolas Lapierre, Matt Howson and Richard Bradley.
LMGTE was dominated by Aston Martin, with the #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 and #98 Aston Martins wrapping up the best average time to secure LMGTE Pro and LMGTE am honours.