Audi Sport Team Joest has locked out the front row for Sunday’s Six Hours of Nürburgring (7 a.m. ET, LIVE on FS1), with Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler taking the top spot in a mixed-condition qualifying for the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The pair, racing as a twosome in the No. 7 Audi R18 without co-driver Benoit Treluyer this weekend, set an average lap time of 1:39.444 in the session, with Lotterer taking the first stint and setting a fast time on his slick tires before the rain increased.
Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grassi secured second in their No. 8 Audi, with Di Grassi setting the fastest time of the session during his qualifying stint.
It marked Lotterer and Fassler’s second pole of the season, in a rather surprising result given Porsche had topped the time charts in every Free Practice session this weekend, although in full dry conditions.
The two Porsches will start from the second row, as the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid edged out the No. 2 car. Mark Webber took to the track twice in the session after just one flying lap at first before handing the car over to Timo Bernhard.
The No. 6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid will line up fifth on the grid ahead of the sister No. 5 car for Toyota Gazoo Racing, over one-second adrift from the pole-sitting Audi.
Rebellion Racing led the LMP1 Privateer field with its No. 13 Rebellion R-One AER of Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori. They’ll be joined by Matheo Tuscher on Sunday.
G-Drive Racing, meanwhile, secured its fourth LMP2 class pole out of four races, with an average lap time of 1:48.984 from Roman Rusinov and Rene Rast in the No. 26 Oreca 05 Nissan.
They will lead the class field at the start of Sunday’s race, along with co-driver Alex Brundle.
The No. 36 Signatech Alpine Alpine A460 Nissan will start from second, ahead of Strakka Racing’s Gibson 015S Nissan, which benefitted from the changing conditions.
Aston Martin Racing will start on GTE-Pro class pole for the first time in nearly a year, with the No. 95 Vantage GTE of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen taking the top spot in a down-to-the-wire session that was also in mixed conditions.
On a drying track, the Dunlop-shod car went to the top of the timing screens on the final lap of the 20-minute session, with Thiim leaving it until the end to improve his time on slicks.
The No. 95 Aston Martin reeled off a combined lap time of 2:01.712, which was more than two-tenths faster than the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Stefan Muecke and Olivier Pla, that was sandwiched by the second No. 97 Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Richie Stanaway in third.
It marked the British manufacturer’s first pole since Circuit of The Americas in 2015 and the first for Dunlop in the class in recent history.
A driver change just a few minutes from the end was the key strategy choice for the cars positioned in the top-three, giving the drivers that set their time first the opportunity to improve their time and thus the average.
The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE was one of the first cars to opt for slicks towards the end of the session, and while Gianmaria Bruni initially went off track on his out lap, he later posted the fastest lap of the field right at the end.
Taking the average into account, it was only enough for fourth on the grid for the No. 51 Ferrari.
The No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari missed out and could only keep two GTE-Am cars behind in the session.
Porsche secured a 1-2 in GTE-Am, with Patrick Long and Khaled Al Qubaisi putting in the quickest average in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing 911 RSR ahead of the No. 78 KCMG Porsche in the hands of Wolf Henzler and Joël Camathias.
The class pole-winning pairing will team with David Heinemeier Hansson.
The Six Hours of Nürburgring gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), with LIVE coverage of the full race on FS1.
