Qualifying
Porsche stole the Toyota party at Spa after a red flag period unsettled the Japanese outfit for Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani to take pole for Saturday’s Six Hour enduro.
The start of LMP qualifying stopped about as soon as it began when the number 26 Manor Oreca of Vitaly Petrov left the track and clouted the barriers – the car suffering rear wing damage.
After the tyre barriers were repaired it was time to reset but not before Toyota took the opportunity to put fresh tyres on for driver number one; hoping to minimise the disadvantage for driver two later in the stint.
Due to the false start, the single ByKolles entry was a remarkable third for all of eight minutes behind the two Porsches of Neel Jani and Brendon Hartley. Hartley’s next time, a 1:53.756 was a scorcher, but not long after exited the track after pushing too hard.
Sarrazin was quick to usurp the New Zealander with a 1:53.6, proving that fresh tyres were crucial in extracting even the barest advantage. With ten minutes remaining, Porsche were nine thousandths of a second in arrears of Toyota, with Andre Lotter using all of the black stuff to bridge the deficit. And that he did by topping the order with an average time of 1:54.097.
A spin from the Bykolles entry coming onto the main straight nearly caught out Kamui Kobayahi in the number 9 Toyota who also suffered the indignity of a track limit infringement. With five minutes remaining the pressure was beginning to mount for the Japanese squad after a relatively seamless lead up in practice – conceding the pole to the number 1 Porsche with the number 7 and 8 Toyota’s taking the final top three spots.
The speed of the LMP2 field was stunning, with the top order lapping quicker than Audi’s pole time of 2012. Drivers were pushing hard, with Nelson Panciatici stretching the second Signatech Alpine further than it liked and off track. Likewise, Francois Perrodo’s time was also deleted, the Frenchman losing top spot in LMP2 in the process. The number 28 G-Drive Oreca of Alex Lynn eventually took pole ahead of both Signatech Alpines, repeating the Brits effort at Silverstone.
Davide Rigon was the only thing standing in the way of total domination from Ford in GTE Pro, with Harry Tincknell and Stephane Mucke slotting into 2nd and third positions – Mucke in particular having his first time deleted due to an infringement of track limits. Mucke would eventually usurp his team mate to take second behind the number 71 Ferrari with Rigon and Sam Bird.
Thomas Flohr was an able back-up the Ferrari stable in GTE Am only to lose top spot to Christian Ried in the number 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche. However, it was the Mathias Lauda/Paul Dalla Lana/Pedro Lamy combination that stole pole in the dying stages of qualifying – Lamy’s 15th pole of his WEC career.