TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will start the 6 Hours of Silverstone from pole position after a one-two in qualifying for the first round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi earned pole position with a combined average lap time of 1min 37.304secs in the #7 TS050 HYBRID they share with José María López. That was achieved via the fastest lap ever recorded by an LMP1 car at Silverstone in WEC.
The pole-sitting #7 crew will start next to their sister car after Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson set the second quickest time, in the #8 they race alongside Sébastien Buemi.
Porsche, the reigning world champion team, will start third and fourth on the grid, with the two 919 Hybrids. Toyota secured a front row lock out for the start of the six-hour race on Sunday. For strategic reasons, Porsche’s Le Mans prototypes approach the fast Formula One circuit in Britain with significantly less aerodynamic downforce than the track layout actually would require.
“We finished fourth in qualifying but we put zero focus on this element,” commented Brendon Hartley “It’s been all about long runs for race preparation and they’ve gone well. We believe we’ve a very good racecar for tomorrow.”
Qualifying results:
1st #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 1min 37.304secs
2nd #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.289secs
3rd #1 Porsche (Jani/Lotterer/Tandy) +1.311secs
4th #2 Porsche (Bernhard/Bamber/Hartley) +1.759secs
5th #26 G-Drive (Rusinov/Thiriet/Lynn) +7.083secs
6th #36 Alpine (Lapierre/Menezes/Rao) +7.129secs
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