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Endurance: First pole position for Toyota

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Khatir Soltani
The Toyota TS030 Hybrid LMP1, which already set the pace in the free practice sessions on Thursday, set the pole position ahead of the Sao Paulo Six Hours, next round of the World Endurance Championship.

Audi was back in the lead in the last free practice session on Saturday morning, but Alex Wurz was again fastest during the qualifying, as the Austrian set the best performance of the session. The former F1 driver, who will share the car with Nicolas Lapierre during the race, gives Toyota its first pole position since his return in endurance racing this season.

WEC Toyota Racing
Photo: Toyota Racing

Luca di Grassi was performant since the first practice session, and the brazilian, who makes his prototype racing debuts, set the second best performance aboard the Audi R18 Ultra that he will share with Tom Kristensen and Alan McNish. The second Audi R18, the Hybrid (last Le Mans 24 Hours winning car) driven by Andre Lotterer, Benoît Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, will start from third position on the grid.

The Rebellion’s Lola Toyota of Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost was the quickest petrol powered car, and will start from 4th position on the grid. The best LMP2 car was the Starworks’ HPD-ARX 03b-Honda, who set the 8th best performance with Stéphane Sarrazin.

Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke’s Aston Martin Vantage was quickest in the GTE Pro class, while the AF Corse-Waltrip’s Ferrari F458 driven by Enrique Bernoldi set the best performance in the GTE Am class.


Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
Automotive expert
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