Toyota to start 1-2 at Silverstone
Toyota continued to exploit its pace advantage this afternoon at Silverstone as it wrapped up the front row of the grid for tomorrow's 6 Hours of Silverstone.
Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway combined to open up a slight gap to Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima to secure the Japanese manufacturer's first pole position since Shanghai in 2014.
The Toyota TS050 HYBRID, which is utilising its higher downforce aero package this weekend, held a 0.289s advantage over the sister #8 machine. It was the 12th pole position that Toyota has secured since it joined the WEC in 2012.
The new era of LMP2 competition started with a pole position for G-Drive Racing as Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet combined in the new-look and more powerful ORECA-Gibson.
Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx took a popular home pole as they headed off the Ferrari threat comfortably in the LMGTE Pro class.
The Headlines from qualifying.......
- Toyota start 1-2 for 6 Hours of Silverstone as #7 Toyota TS 050 HYBRID heads #8 sister car
- Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway combine to set average lap time of 1m37.304s to enjoy large advantage over rivals Porsche
- Kobayashi sets scorching overall best lap time of 1m36.793s lap
- Nakajima and Davidson in #8 Toyota just 0.289s behind teammates
- #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid starts third as Jani and Tandy combine to set 1m38.615s
- Bernhard and Hartley take fourth in #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid
- G-Drive Racing take pole in LMP2 as Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet combine to head Signatech Alpine by under 0.1s
- TDS Racing start third and #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing fourth
- Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell grab pole for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing as they take #67 Ford GT to a combined 1m56.202s lap time
- British pair enjoy large advantage of 0.8s over #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird
- Reigning champion #95 Aston Martin makes it three manufacturers in top three of LMGTE Pro.
- Tough session for new Porsche 911 RSR entries as they start 7th and 8th
- LMGTE Am class sees close battle as the #98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana take class pole position by 1.3 seconds from #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari
- #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche starts third in LMGTE Am
The 6 Hours of Silverstone is scheduled for a 12.00 (local time) start tomorrow. Full times from qualifying can be found HERE
