Toyota surges to pole on home soil for FIA WEC Six Hours of Fuji
A last gasp effort by Sebastien Buemi was rewarded with pole for Toyota on home soil for Sunday's FIA WEC Six Hours of Fuji.
The action-packed prototype qualifying session saw the No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid atop the time charts early, thanks to co-driver Anthony Davidson but a red flag with seven minutes to go halted Buemi's chance of a quick lap.
Instead, the No. 20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber held provisional pole, with Buemi reeling off a 1:27.173 with less than two minutes remaining to go to the top of the time charts.
Buemi and Davidson's best four-lap average of 1:26.886 edged out the No. 20 Porsche duo of Webber and Timo Bernhard by 0.043 seconds, giving the Japanese manufacturer a crucial pole position for the fifth round of the championship.
It marked the duo's second consecutive pole and Toyota's fourth of the season.
The No. 14 Porsche, qualified by Neel Jani and Marc Lieb will roll off third overall and in the LMP1-H class, followed by the No. 7 Toyota in fourth, which failed to improve on its times set prior to the red.
Both of the Audi R18 e-tron quattros struggled in the 25-minute session, qualifying fifth and sixth, respectively, and more than one-second adrift from the pace-setting Toyota.
LMP1-L pole honors went to the No. 12 Rebellion R-One Toyota of Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche, despite Beche momentarily stopping on track with an electrical issue.
A separate issue for the sister Rebellion entry, driven by Fabio Leimer, brought out the red flag, which set up a seven-minute shootout for the pole.
Heidfeld and Beche's 1:31.751 average was nearly five seconds slower than the LMP1-H pole-sitting Toyota.
G-Drive Racing claimed its second consecutive pole in LMP2, with Olivier Pla and Roman Rusinov combining for a 1:33.062 average in their Ligier JS P2 Nissan.
However, the OAK Racing-run entry will start from fourth on the grid tomorrow after receiving a three-position grid penalty due to Rusinov improving his sector time during a full-course yellow in Friday's Free Practice.
The sister No. 35 OAK Morgan-Judd of Alex Brundle and Gustavo Yacaman qualified second and will lead the LMP2 field to the green as a result, ahead of the COTA class-winning No. 47 KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan, which completed the top-three in qualifying.
Aston Martin Racing will start from the pole in both GTE-Pro and GTE-Am after sweeping the production-based ranks.
Alex MacDowall and Fernando Rees claimed their first career poles in GTE-Pro, combining for a four-lap average of 1:39.686 in the No. 99 Craft-Bamboo-backed entry.
The duo edged out the sister No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Darren Turner and Stefan Muecke by 0.345 seconds, making it a front row sweep for the British manufacturer for the fifth round of the season.
MacDowall and Rees will team with Darryl O'Young on Sunday.
The No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Frenchmen Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki will start third in class, followed by the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia GT of Davide Rigon and James Calado in fourth.
Championship leaders Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander completed the top-five in class after electing to not set a time in the early stages of the session.
AMR's Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard claimed top qualifying honors in GTE-Am with a 1:50.624 lap time average in their No. 98 Aston Martin.
The duo edged out the No. 81 AF Corse Ferrari, qualified by Andrea Bertolini and Michele Rugolo, by 0.394 seconds.
After starting the session in the car, Lamy returned to the wheel in the closing stages of the 25-minute session to improve his best times.
Nicki Thiim and David Heinemeier Hansson qualified the No. 95 Aston Martin in third, putting all four Astons within the top-three of each class in qualifying.
AMR's Lamy, Nygaard and co-driver Paul Dalla Lana will be searching for back-to-back class wins on Sunday after being victorious last time out at Circuit of The Americas.
The top-five in GTE-Am was completed by the Prospeed Competition and Proton Competition Porsches, respectively.
The FIA WEC Six Hours of Fuji takes the green Sunday at 11 a.m. local (Saturday, 10 p.m. ET).
