The two Porsche 919 Hybrids will start from the first and second rows of the grid for the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Mexico City. The current championship leaders, Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE), will start the six-hour race from second on the grid. The reigning world champions, Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU), qualified in fourth. Audi took pole position. The six-hour race at the Mexican Formula One circuit will start on Saturday at 13:30 hrs local time (20:30 CEST). After qualifying was held in warm and dry conditions, the weather forecast for the race is still uncertain.
“We split the tyre strategy between our two cars and this, for sure, was the right thing to do,” commented Hartley. “Unfortunately, I had to back off from my quick lap in the last sector because of traffic, until then it looked promising. After that we had a red flag. I went again, but then made a mistake. However, we are definitely confident for tomorrow’s race.”
In the WEC the average of the respective best laps of two drivers counts for the grid position. In Mexico City Jani/Lieb (car number 2, position 2, 1:25.111 minutes) and Hartley/Webber (car number 1, position 4, 1:25.400 minutes) were the qualifying drivers.
In the third free practice session, again on a dry track, Brendon Hartley topped the time sheets with a lap of 1:25.387 minutes. The sister car came fourth with Neel Jani putting in the fastest lap time of 1:25.847 minutes.
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