Audi secures 1-2 as No.7 R18 takes pole at COTA

After heading all three practice sessions Audi duly claimed the front row for the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas, Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship. However the roles were reversed within the team. After the No.8 Audi had headed the time sheets in each of the Free Practice sessions it was the No.7 R18 of Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer who claimed Audi’s third pole position in a row with an average lap of 1m45.842, just 0.141 ahead of their teammates Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis in the No.8 car. The No.1 Porsche 919 will start on row two after Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley posted a 1m46.560 two lap average. It looked as if they would be joined by the No.2 Porsche on row two but Romain Dumas final lap was deleted for abuse of track limited and the No.6 Toyota TS050 will start alongside the No.1 Porsche after Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi briefly challenged for a front row start during the 20 minute session. The No.13 Rebellion Racing R-One driven by Alexandre Imperatori and Dominik Kraihamer was the faster of the two LMP1 Privateer entries but with the No.4 ByKolles CLM-AER closer to the pace of the Rebellion in Texas today. In LMP2 championship leaders Nico Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes claimed the team’s first pole of the season by nearly one second. The French-American pairing posted a 1m55.892 two lap average, 0.981 seconds faster than the No.44 Manor Oreca of Roberto Merhi and Matthew Rao. The No.43 RGR Sport Oreca of Mexico race winners Bruno Senna and Ricardo Gonzalez were third fastest, 1.475 seconds behind the pole position holders and 0.169s ahead of the nNo.42 Strakka Racing Gibson of Jonny Kane and Lewis Williamson. The No.26 G Drive Racing Ligier of Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov will have to start at the back of the grid after Brundle had three lap times deleted due to the abuse of track limits, with the British driver failing to record a time during the 20-minute session. For all the key moments of qualifying CLICK HERE For all the results of qualifying CLICK HERE

Aston Martin take double LMGTE pole position  It was all smiles in the Aston Martin garage as the team claimed pole position in both LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am with the No.95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen claiming their third pole in a row and the no98 Vantage of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana also taking their third pole start of 2016. The two lap average of the no95 was a 2m04.610, just 0.042 ahead of the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird. In fact the top six cars were covered by less than half a second. Row two will be headed by the no66 Ford GT of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke, with the No.51 AF Corse of Gimmi Bruni and James Calado alongside them in 4th and just 0.211 behind the lead car. In LMGTE Am the gap between 1st and 2nd was 0.6 seconds with the 6 Hours of Mexico winners, the No.88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche, taking the second place position behind the No.98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage. Kevin Estre and Khalid Al Qubaisi set an average lap time of 2m07.282, which was 0.5 seconds ahead of the No.78 KCMG Porsche and the No.86 Gulf Racing 911. The 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas will take place on Saturday 17 September with the green flag being flown by endurance legend Tom Kristensen at 17h00 and finishing after sunset at 23h00 local time. For the race day timetable CLICK HERE

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