Silverstone WEC: Audi stuns Porsche to lock out front row

On a drying track, a stunning laptime of 1m53.705s from Lotterer in the first part of the session catapulted the #7 R18 e-tron quattro - which had struggled for pace in comparison to Porsche during Friday practice - to the top of the timesheets.

Taking over at the halfway stage, Fassler managed to nudge down the #7 car's average to a 1m53.204s to claim an unlikely pole, just 0.104s up on the #8 machine of Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi.

The Brazilian set the fastest time of the session, a 1m52.911s, and looked set to improve by enough to grab pole before running across the grass on his last flying lap at Club corner.

Reigning champions Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley were forced to be content with third with an average time of 1m54.150s in the #1 919 Hybrid, just under a second behind the leading Audi.

The sister #2 car of Neel Jani and Romain Dumas was close behind on a 1m54.299s, easily clear of the Toyotas, which struggled badly for pace in the tricky conditions after a promising showing in practice.

The #6 TS050 Hybrid (driven by Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin) will start fifth, one place ahead of the #5 of Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima.

Honours in the LMP1-L category went to the ByKolles Racing Team, after Rebellion Racing failed to get either of its cars out with both drivers.

The #12 car of Nick Heidfeld and Nelson Piquet Jr suffered a mid-session electronics issue, while the sister #13 car failed to start at all.

G-Drive takes LMP2 pole

In the LMP2 class, it was the reigning champion G-Drive squad that ended qualifying on top, as Rene Rast and Roman Rusinov combined to produce an average time of 2m08.479s in the #26 Oreca.

It was Pipo Derani in the ESM-run Ligier who set the best time in class, a 2m07.315s, but the team was demoted to second on an average of 2m09.632s once Chris Cumming took the wheel of the #31 car.

Third was the #43 RGR Sport by Morand (Filipe Albuquerque/Ricardo Gonzalez), ahead of the #27 and #37 BR01 machines and the #45 Manor (Matt Rao/Richard Bradley), which completed the top six.

Ferrari on top in GTE Pro

As expected, the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs proved the cars to beat in the GTE Pro class, the #71 machine of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird topping the times with a combined 2m12.440s.

The #51 of James Calado had been faster in the opening runs, but teammate Gianmaria Bruni failed to complete a lap in the second segment, relegating the duo to the back of the grid.

That allowed the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche (Richard Lietz/Michael Christiansen) to grab second in class, albeit 1.4s down on the #71, with the two Ford GTs taking third and fourth places, the #66 of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla ahead.

In GTE-Am, it was the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche of Klaus Bachler and Khaled Al-Qubaisi that set the pace, some two seconds ahead of the #78 KCMG Porsche. 

Qualifying results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time
1	Andre Lotterer  Benoit Tréluyer  Marcel Fassler	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro '16	1:53.204
2	Loic Duval  Oliver Jarvis  Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro '16	1:53.308
3	Mark Webber  Brendon Hartley  Timo Bernhard	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid '16	1:54.150
4	Marc Lieb  Romain Dumas  Neel Jani	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid '16	1:54.266
5	Kamui Kobayashi  Mike Conway  Stéphane Sarrazin	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS050 HYBRID	1:58.200
6	Anthony Davidson  Kazuki Nakajima  Sébastien Buemi	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS050 HYBRID	2:00.109
7	James Rossiter  Oliver Webb  Simon Trummer	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM P1/01	2:08.332
8	Roman Rusinov  René Rast  Nathanael Berthon	G-Drive Racing	ORECA 05	2:08.479
9	Ryan Dalziel  Pipo Derani  Chris Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2	2:09.632
10	Ricardo Gonzalez  Filipe Albuquerque  Bruno Senna	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier JS P2	2:10.295
11	Nicolas Minassian  Maurizio Mediani	SMP Racing	BR Engineering BR01	2:10.627
12	Vitaly Petrov  Kirill Ladygin  Viktor Shaytar	SMP Racing	BR Engineering BR01	2:11.023
13	Roberto Merhi  Matt Rao  Richard Bradley	Manor	ORECA 05	2:11.893
14	Nicolas Lapierre  Gustavo Menezes  Stéphane Richelmi	Signatech	Alpine A460	2:12.221
15	Davide Rigon  Sam Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	2:12.440
16	Tor Graves  Will Stevens  James Jakes	Manor	ORECA 05	2:13.105
17	Jonny Kane  Nick Leventis  Danny Watts	Strakka Racing	Gibson 015S	2:13.729
18	Richard Lietz  Michael Christensen	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	2:13.822
19	Billy Johnson  Olivier Pla  Stefan Mücke	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT '16	2:14.475
20	Nelson Panciatici  Ho-Pin Tung  David Cheng	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine A460	2:14.863
21	Khaled Al Qubaisi  David Heinemeier Hansson  Klaus Bachler	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	2:15.102
22	Andy Priaulx  Marino Franchitti  Harry Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT '16	2:17.367
23	Christian Ried  Joel Camathias  Wolf Henzler	KCMG	Porsche 911 RSR	2:17.399
24	Paolo Ruberti  Yutaka Yamagishi  Pierre Ragues	Larbre Compétition	Chevrolet Corvette C7 GT3	2:18.344
25	Mike Wainwright  Adam Carroll  Ben Barker	Gulf Racing UK	Porsche 911 RSR	2:19.084
26	Emmanuel Collard  Rui Aguas  François Perrodo	AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	2:20.131
27	Scott Sharp  Ed Brown  Johannes van Overbeek	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2	2:20.410
28	Richie Stanaway  Fernando Rees	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:21.091
29	Nicki Thiim  Marco Sorensen  Darren Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:22.252
30	Pedro Lamy  Paul Dalla Lana  Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	2:23.005
31	Nelson Piquet Jr.  Nick Heidfeld  Nicolas Prost	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One
32	Gianmaria Bruni  James Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE
33	Alexandre Imperatori  Matheo Tuscher  Dominik Kraihamer	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One