Last gasp Tandy seals pole for No.1 Porsche; Lapierre stars in LMP2 qualifying

Porsche claimed a front-row lock-out in qualifying at COTA this afternoon for the second race in succession.

This time though it was the reigning champion Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Neel Jani and Nick Tandy which claimed the top spot. It was the No.1 car’s second pole of the 2017 FIA WEC season after their earlier achievement at Spa in May.

It was far from straight-forward though as Tandy had to put in an unscheduled last-minute lap after an earlier effort had been erased for a track limit violation.

The average time of 1m44.741s was a full second faster than last year’s pole and eclipsed the sister car, driven by Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber by just 0.2s.

Toyota Gazoo Racing will start third and fourth with the No.8 car qualified by Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima heading the No.7 TS 050 HYBRID LMP1-H car of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.

Signatech takes second pole in a row

LMP2 saw a similar theme with a track limits violation initially seeming to change the complexion of the session.

Fortunately though for the Signatech Alpine Matmut duo of Andre Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre it didn’t spoil their second consecutive pole position.

The Brazilian/French alliance of Negrao and Lapierre set an average of 1m54.024s to head the No.13 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca-Gibson of Matthias Beche and David Heinemeier-Hansson who took their best qualifying position of the season so far.

The 2017 Lone Star Le Mans is scheduled to get underway at 12.00 local time tomorrow afternoon.

The Headlines from Qualifying at COTA...

•    Dramatic finale sees Nick Tandy making late bid in no.1 Porsche 919 Hybrid to take pole position
•    Tandy and teammate Neel Jani set an average of 1m44.741s to just beat sister Porsche by 0.253s
•    No.1 Porsche had qualifying strategy was initially compromised as Nick Tandy is penalised for track limit violation at T5 and has lap deleted
•    Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber set pole average of 1m44.994s to take second place and ensure a Porsche front-row lock-out
•    Toyota place third and fourth with No.8 TS 050 HYBRID heading sister No.7 car
•    Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima combine but are 1.6 adrift of Porsche pair
•    LMP2 sees high drama as Signatech Alpine Matmut see lap set by Nicolas Lapierre erased due to track limit abuse.
•    Signatech’s misfortune would not deny it pole position though as Lapierre and Andre Negrao take second pole in as many races
•    Season best second position sees No.13 Vaillante Rebellion pair of David Heinemeier Hansson and Matthias Beche claim second position
•    Points leading Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibson places third

All times can be found HERE