Endurance: Toyota takes pole in Shanghai

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From press release

Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre of Toyota Racing set the pole position ahead of the 6 Hours of Shanghai, penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship.

The Austrian-French duo set a combined fastest average time of 1:48.013 in their No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid, ahead of No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, driven in qualifying by Marcel Fässler and Benoit Tréluyer, the two hybrid-powered prototypes being separed by just 0.08 seconds.

Photo: Toyota Racing

Third in LMP1 was the No.8 Toyota of Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi, its best average time being 1:48.694 – 0.68s from its sister car – followed by the No.2 Audi of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.  The No.12 Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota rounded out the top class, the LMP1 Privateer entry being driven in qualifying by Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche.

In LMP2, the No.26 G-Drive Racing entry claimed pole position for the third time in four races, some margin ahead of the hard-charging No.24 OAK Racing and No.41 Greaves. Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner set the LMGTE Pro pole position in the no97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8, just 0.019s ahead of  their teammates Bruno Senna and Richie Stanaway in the nr99 Vantage.

In LMGTE Am Christoffer Nygaard and Nicki Thiim posted the fastest 4-lap average of 2m05.903 in the nr95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage, just 0.015s ahead of the nr61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Marco Cioci and Matt Griffin.

The 6 Hours of Shanghai will take place tomorrow morning at 11am (local).