Porsche takes pole for WEC Six Hours of COTA

Porsche takes pole for WEC Six Hours of COTA

Published Sep. 18, 2015 9:44 p.m. ET
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Porsche will start Saturday's Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas from the pole, following another dominant 1-2 qualifying run by the German manufacturer in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

A late flyer by Neel Jani saw the Swiss driver snatch pole from its sister entry, thanks to a 1:46.018 lap time with seconds remaining on clock of the 20-minute session.

Jani and co-driver Marc Lieb combined for a best two-lap average of 1:46.375, edging out the Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley-qualified No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid by 0.164 second.

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It came after a boost-related issue for the No. 18 Porsche during Jani's original flying lap. Jani got back in the car after Lieb's qualifying lap to set the eventual quickest lap of the weekend.

Jani and Lieb will share driving duties with Romain Dumas tomorrow, leading another sweep of the front row for the World Championship-leading manufacturer.

The No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval was third with a 1:47.538 average, three-tenths quicker than the No. 7 Audi, which bounced back from an alternator issue in Free Practice 1.

The pair of Toyota TS040 Hybrids completed the top-six overall and in LMP1, again unable to challenge the front-running German prototypes.

KCMG captured a surprise pole in LMP2, after its Oreca 05 Nissan ground to a halt on-track in the opening moments of the prototype qualifying session.

The Matt Howson-driven entry was towed back to the pits, where the team quickly fixed the issue after the early red flag for the stoppage.

Howson and co-driver Richard Bradley combined for a best average of 1:56.834, some three-tenths quicker than the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan, which was second.

The sister G-Drive entry was third, followed by the No. 30 Tequila Patron ESM Ligier-Honda, which had shown improved pace this weekend in the Florida-based team's home race.

After seeing its seven-race pole sweep streak come to an end at the Nürburgring, Aston Martin Racing returned to the top of the qualifying time charts, with the British manufacturer taking GTE-Pro.

Dempsey Proton Racing, meanwhile, claimed its first career GTE-Am pole on home soil with American drivers Patrick Long and Patrick Dempsey handling qualifying duties.

A two-lap average of 2:05.872 by the No. 99 Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway and Fernando Rees was good enough for the top spot in GTE-Pro, thanks to a late flyer by the Kiwi.

The pairing, who will team with Alex MacDowall tomorrow, outpaced the No. 91 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Nürburgring class winners Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen by 0.262 second.

It was the No. 99 Aston's third pole of the season, with the sister No. 97 entry, driven this weekend by Darren Turner and Jonny Adam, set to line up third in class thanks to a 2:06.272 average.

The No. 95 Aston Martin and No. 92 Porsche completed the top-five in class.

Long and Dempsey rocketed to the GTE-Am pole, thanks to a 2:06.374 by the American Porsche factory driver on his final flying lap of the 20-minute qualifying session.

It marked Dempsey's first career pole in his sports car racing career.

Marco Seefried will join the duo in the No. 77 Porsche tomorrow, as the trio seek their first WEC class victory.

Long bumped the No. 96 Aston Martin of Stuart Hall and Benny Simonsen from provisional pole, with the British entry ending up second in class, nearly two-tenths behind.

The Six Hours of COTA gets underway Saturday at 6 p.m. ET, live on FOX Sports 2.

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