Toyota Takes Pole Amidst Timing Confusion.
Toyota took a 1 -2 in the first qualifying session of the 2013 WEC season, led by the #7 TS030 with Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre behind the wheel; the duo putting in an average time of 1:48.021.
It was a somewhat surprising result, since both Audis finished ahead of the Toyotas in each of the three practice sessions prior to the qualifying session.
Not all was well though; a technical problem with the timing system delayed the official qualifying results by over an hour and, coupled with the new qualifying system, created confusion up and down the paddock.
“We decided to start on intermediate tires, which was a bit risky because in the beginning there was a lot of rain,” said Lapierre. “But it was a good choice. We were a bit conservative because the biggest mistake would have been to crash. It was difficult because this new qualification is a bit complicated for everyone. But in the end, we took the right decision and we got it. It was even a 1-2, so we’re very pleased.”
After such a promising third practice session from the Rebellion Racing team – who posted the fastest overall time – the expectation was that order would be restored, with the four factory cars finishing in the top four. Rebellion’s #12 entry, however, had other ideas and an average time of 1:52.124 was good enough to spilt the Audis.
It was a disappointing session for the all-British squad, Strakka Racing, who failed to set a time after a spin from Danny Watts at Becketts ended their chances early on in the session.
In LMP2, the eventually pole time was set by the combination of James Walker and Antonio Pizzonia in the #25 Delta – ADR Oreca Nissan.
The varying conditions by the end of the session spread out the field massively as the closest to Delta – ADR was the #24 Oak Racing Morgan Nissan which was over two seconds back.
At the rear of the LMP2 field, the KCMG Morgan, Greaves Zytek and #45 Oak Morgan all struggled to post competitive times as they finished the session behind multiple GTE cars and at the bottom of the timing sheet. The stewards however have decided to move them up the grid, for safety reasons and they will start ahead of the GT cars.
A greater surprise, though, was the performance the of the Lotus T128s which ended up fifth and sixth in LMP2, with the #32 putting in an average time of 2:01.555 to take that fifth place.
GTE-Pro saw a fantastic result for both Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantages, which finished first and second in class on home soil. The #97 will lead the charge tomorrow after Darren Turner and Stephane Mücke put in a stellar combined-time of 2:00.566.
AF Corse’s early weekend form didn’t translate well to qualifying, as both the #51 and #71 Ferraris ended up at the rear end of the class. This left the two new factory-run Porsche 991s taking third and fourth. Porsche boss Olaf Manthey will surely be very pleased with how the new car has performed leading up to the race.
The GTE-Am class was also lead by Aston Martin Racing, as Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter combined to produce a pole-grabbing average of 2:01.158, while Christoffer Nygaard and Allan Simonsen posted a 2:01.554 average in the #95 Vantage to take second for Sunday’s race.
Unlike in Pro, the teams running Ferraris had a decent outing in the AM class; notably AF Corse, whose effort fared better in Am with the #61 car of Matt Griffin and Marco Cioci taking second spot with 2:02.396. 8Star Motorsport’s qualifying debut in the WEC was also impressive, with Rui Aguas and Philipp Peter combining for third spot in class, just three tenths back from the AF Corse 458.
Now that we know how the grid is set, let’s look forward to six hours of classic, hopefully easier to follow, WEC action tomorrow.
Stephen Kilbey
