Aston Martin maintained its 100% record at the Shanghai International Circuit by claiming pole position in the LMGTE Pro category for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Shanghai, the sixth round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, and topped it with pole position in the LMGTE Am class as well.
In a tense session which was dry until the last five minutes, each of the GTE manufacturers was vying for the top, with the primary battle coming down to Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke’s No.97 Vantage V8 and the No.92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki.
The Porsche set the pace early in the 25-minute session, but the average of the two best laps from each of the Aston Martin drivers was enough to tip the balance towards last year’s pole sitter and LMGTE Pro race winners. Their best (averaged) time was 2:04.347 – less than three hundredths of a second better than the time they set for pole last year – and only a tenth of a second ahead of the Porsche.
Third in the Pro category was the No.91 911 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister and Richard Lietz, the German marque benefiting from the 10kg weight reduction this weekend and being at a track which appears to suit the car well. Their time of 2:04.599 was three tenths ahead of the first of the two AF Corse Ferraris, the No.51 F458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander qualifying marginally ahead of the No.71 of Davide Rigon and James Calado. The No.99 Aston Martin Vantage of Fernando Rees, Darryl O’Young and Alex MacDowall was only two hundredths of a second behind the 71.
In the LMGTE Am category, the No.75 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Emmanuel Collard and Matthieu Vaxivière did all it could to prevent Aston Martin from taking a double pole position but it was in vain. The No.98 Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard eclipsed last year’s pole position time (set by Aston Martin’s No.95) by almost a second, setting a new qualifying lap record for the category.
Third in the class was the No.95 Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway – who set the early running in the time sheets – and David Heinemeier Hansson with a lap of 2:05.203. The No.90 8Star Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia of Paolo Ruberti and Matteo Cressoni was fourth, and the No.88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried and Wolf Henzler rounded out the LMGTE runners, less than a second separating the five entries.
The cars will be back on track tomorrow for the 6 Hours of Shanghai which begins at 11h00 local time. Full results can be found HERE
Driver quotes:
Stefan Mücke: “We’ve been strong here for the last two years but it wasn’t easy out there today. We had to work really hard for it. It’s our first pole of the year, so it’s very important to us and the whole team should be proud.”
Darren Turner: “It was very close, the gap to the second placed Porsche is only a tenth. Stefan did a great job, as always, and I’m really happy for everyone here at Aston Martin Racing. We have a lot of guests here in China and it’s great to get a pole position for them.”
Christoffer Nygaard: This is the second pole position in a row for us and it’s great to be starting from the front. We are in second place in the championship behind our #95 sister car so we need to score as many points as we can this weekend in order to catch them.”
CLICK HERE to see the video from the post qualifying press conference. With Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost, Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla, Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard.
Qualifying facts:
14:24:20 In LMP2 #26 fastest (9th overall) from #47 Oreca and #37 Oreca
14:22:59 In LMP1-L #12 Rebellion fastest from #13 Rebellion
14:22:06 In LMP1 #14 Porsche on pole from #8 Toyota and #20 Porsche
14:21:11 Chequered Flag
14:20:57 Porsche #14 holds onto pole with 1:48.300 average but #8 Toyota sets identical average
14:19:05 Toyota #8 has to find .011 of a second to get pole
14:16:52 Toyota #8 moves into 2nd place
14:16:07 Porsches #14 and #20 lead the way with 4 mins to go
14:13:52 1:54.327 fastest 4 lap average for #26 Ligier in P2
14:13:03 1:54.371 after 3 laps for #26 Ligier fastest in P2
14:11:41 1:48.300 first 4 lap average for #14 Porsche
14:10:35 1:48.028 average after 3 laps is fastest for #14 Porsche
14:09:19 All 16 LMPs have set 2 lap average
14:06:55 Lotus CLM #9 reported for speeding in pit lane
14:06:19 Second drivers now getting into cars
14:05:13 #26 Ligier fastest after 2 laps in P2
14:04:39 1:47.321 2 lap average for #14 Porsche fastest
14:03:34 #31 ESM HPD stopped on circuit
14:02:59 Audi #1 hit by #37 Oreca
14:01:52 Toyota #8 leads out
14:00:50 Green Flag
13:52:23 Wet session
13:51:51 Prototypes now queueing in pit lane
13:49:40 First pole of 2014 for Aston #97
13:48:51 In GTE Am #98 Aston fastest from #75 Porsche and #95 Aston
13:47:51 In GTE Pro #97 Aston fastest from #92 Porsche and #91 Porsche
13:46:12 Chequered Flag
13:45:25 All 11 GTE cars have set a 4 lap average
13:43:35 Aston #97 fastest in Pro with 2:04.342
13:42:02 2:05.072 for Aston #98 fastest In GTE Am
13:41:15 Light rain on the circuit
13:40:21 2:04.479 second in GTE Pro for #97 Aston
13:39:09 2:05.203 fastest 4 lap average in GTE Am for #95 Aston
13:38:17 2:04.446 - first to set 4 lap average in #92 Porsche
13:36:47 Vilander in #51 Ferrari
13:35:18 2:04.211 3 lap average for #92 Porsche
13:33:40 Heinemeier-Hansson now in #95 Aston
13:33:12 Makowiecki now in #92 Porsche
13:32:04 In GTE Pro #92 Porsche has fastest 2 lap average
13:30:44 Second drivers now getting into cars
13:30:03 All 11 GTE cars have set a lap time
13:29:00 2:03.629 fastest 2 lap average for Stanaway in #95 Aston
13:28:04 2:03.790 for Pilet in Porsche #92
13:27:29 2:03.827 for Stanaway in #95 Aston
13:26:16 2:05.186 for Aston #99 of Rees
13:21:43 Aston #99 first out
13:21:06 Green Flag
13:20:12 1 minute to start of session
Photos: SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT (SHANGHAI, CHINA), 6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI, QUALIFYING, SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2014. 1) Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner of Aston Martin Racing's No.97 LMGTE Pro entry, 2) The No.98 Vantage V8 of Lamy-Dalla Lana-Nygaard claimed pole position in LMGTE Am.
