The qualifying of the eighth round of FIA World Endurance Championship was run in Shanghai, China.
The GTE cars were the first out for 20 minutes, and as always there have to be two drivers in the car to set a qualifying time.
Michael Christensen started in Porsche #92, while Marco Sørensen was the first man in Aston Martin Racing #95.
There was already a war between Ford and Ferrari since the first minute of the qualifying. Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK was the first of the two that went out on track, while AF Corse still had both their cars in the pits, exactly until the championship leading Ford appeared at the start-finish straight. It led to James Calado in #51 blocked Andy Priaulx in #67 right in the middle of Turn 1, which wasn’t a nice move from the Italian team.
Christensen in #92 jumped to first place in GTE Pro, followed by Sørensen in #95 in second, while Calado in #5 took the third position, in front of Olivier Pla in Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #66. Four different brands in the first four positions.
In GTE Am, Spirit of Race Ferrari #54 was the quickest car in front of Aston Martin Racing #98 and Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #77.
Nicki Thiim followed up the laptime in #95 and reclaimed the first position in GTE Pro class, while Kevin Estre in #92 couldn’t match up Thiim’s time and will start from second position tomorrow. Alessandro Pier Guidi in #51 drove the car to P3, before the two Ford cars #67 in front of #66 completed the top 5.
Paul Dalla Lana drove Aston Martin Racing #98 to Pole Position in GTE Am, in front of Matteo Cairoli in Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #77, and Thomas Flohr in Spirit of Race #54.
Photo: JJ Media
In LMP1, Nick Tandy in Porsche #1 started with setting the best time, in front of Mike Conway in Toyota Gazoo Racing #7. Bruno Senna was the quickest in his Vaillante Rebellion #31, followed by his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr in #13, and Vitaly Petrov in CEFC Manor TRS Racing #25.
Both Porsche cars came out in traffic in their first flying lap, with Lotterer in #1 and Bamber in #2. Actually, Bamber ended up spinning on the track before he could get the car to the right direction again.
Toyota made the best of that and clocked the fastest time with Kamui Kobayashi in #7, in front of Lotterer in Porsche #1 and Anthony Davidson in Toyota #8.
In LMP2 class, Julien Canal was the quickest in Vaillante Rebellion #31 and took Pole Position, in front of Leo Roussel in G-Drive Racing #26, and David Heinemeier Hansson in the other Vaillante Rebellion #13.
Photo: JJ Media
The race will start on Sunday at 04.00 CET.
