Porsche has won pole for the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai, turning things around after a slow free practice that was dominated by Audi. Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley topped the timesheet in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid with an average of 1m44.462s.
Toyota will start from second with Buemi and Nakajima in the #5 TS 050 Hybrid, they fell behind pole winners by just 0.06s. After going quickest in free practice, Audi only managed to secure third in qualifying with the #8 R18 e-tron quattro driven by Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis.
Qualifying was delayed after a barrier was damaged during a support race, several drivers had their times deleted for exceeding track limits forcing them to run a number of stints in search for the perfect lap. Hartley was among those whose time got deleted. For the #2 Porsche team, their lap was deleted for excessive fuel use and will thus start from P6.
Elsewhere, Rebellion Racing won pole in the LMP1 privateer category ahead of the ByKolles CLM P1/01 that was delayed by technical issues. Manor scored their first pole of the season thanks to the young team of Alex Lynn and Matt Rao whose time of 1m54.225s proved to be quicker than second placed Signatech Alpine.
Ford continued to dominate the LMGTE-Pro class by locking out the front row for the second consecutive time. This time it was the #67 Ford GT team that topped this class marking their first pole of the season. Fuji pole winners Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke came in second to secure a 1-2 for Ford in the #66 GT. The #95 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim rounded off the top three in LMGTE-Pro by finishing third in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage.
Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy meanwhile scored their fifth pole of the season in LMGTE-Am class with the #98 Aston Martin Vantage leading the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia and the #88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.
The main race kicks off tomorrow at 11:00hr local time.
