Toyota takes easy WEC pole at Austin

Toyota #8 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) leaders Anthony Davidson, Sebastian Buemi, and Nicolas Lapierre took pole position for the fourth round of the 2014 World Endurance Champion at Austin, beating the factory Porsches by well over a second in today’s qualifying session.

After the session was red flagged to retrieve the #12 Rebellion racing, drivers were left with just four and a half minutes to improve upon/complete their four lap average.

Sebastien Buemi, who was one of the team’s two nominated drivers for the #8 TS040 Hybrid along with Anthony Davidson, clocked the Circuit of the Americas in 1:49.156 in dying minutes of the session to ensure that Toyota took their second pole position of the WEC season.

"When you have a red flag and have done only one lap you are a bit nervous because you never know what can happen, but our times were very good four laps within two tenths," Buemi said after qualifying.

Neel Jani set the quickest single lap during the entire 25 minute qualifying session, only for his laptime to be deleted for using more than the allowed amount of ERS. However, a four lap average of 1'50.283 in a car shared with Romain Dumas, placed the #14 Porsche on the front row of the grid.

The other Porsche of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and and Timo Bernhard were two hundredths shy of their sister car, with the first two of the trio setting an average time of 1'50.302.

Audi, which comes fresh from its one-two finish at Le Mans, had a troubled time at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, with software issues restricting the #2 and #1 R18 e-tron quattros to just fourth and sixth on the grid.

Lotus’ return to the prime WEC category didn’t go according to plan, with their drivers being forced to sit in the garage for the entire qualifying session. However, the team has been allowed to take part in tomorrow’s six hours race.

LMP2, GTE PRO AND GTE AM

In the privateers only LMP2 category, the Ligier JS P2 of G-Drive Racing took pole position, with Roman Rusinov and Olivier Pla behind the wheel. Championship leader Sergey Zlobin was only fourth quickest in his Oreca 03R.

In GTE Pro, runaway championship leaders Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander took their fourth consecutive pole position of the season in Ferrari 458 Italia. In the Amateur category, the Porsche duo of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, Matthieu Vaxiviere reigned supreme, with an average time of 2'08.271.

WEC AUSTIN LMP1-H QUALIFYING RESULTS

#8 Anthony Davidson, Sebastian Buemi, Nicolas Lapierre Toyota 1'49.093

#14 Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb Porsche 1:50.283

#20 Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard Porsche 1:50.302

#2 Marcel Fassler, André Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer Audi 1:50.340

#7 Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway Toyota 1:50.363

#1 Lucas di Grassi, Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval, Audi 1:51.456