Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer applied maximum pressure on Porsche to give Audi pole position and a front-row lockout for the 6 Hours of Nurburgring.
Toyota oddly opted for wets for their first run while Marc Lieb was limiting himself to one lap to see where the standing water was located. Neel Jani was already ready to jump in.
Mark Webber was the first man into the 1:40’s and just a hair’s breath away from his best in practice. Clearly Porsche were doing something very different with their tyres. Webber would do one lap with the option of jumping back in, however the potential of rain could play a determining factor.
Marcel Fassler opted to stay out in the number 7 Audi and the tyre temp began yielding more and more time. He went to provisional pole and rain began to sprinkle and team mate di Grassi jumped into the 1:37’s in the number 8 Audi and ready to switch over to Oliver Jarvis.
Jarvis immediately jumped into 2nd place and put all the pressure on Porsche. They responded by putting new tyres on the number one car of Webber. The Australian and Marc Lieb would have two laps to go below 1:40 with the track getting wetter and wetter.
Webber overshot the chicane on his first flyer with one lap remaining, but a spin from Fassler brought out the yellows and with it any chance of anyone improving. The yellows were removed, but with more precipitation meant an Audi pole was all but guaranteed.
Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastien Buemi were unable to capitalize on their impressive FP3 pace and would start on the third row for Toyota, just over a second behind the leading Audi.
The number 13 Rebellion Racing R-One of Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori took LMP1 Privateer pole ahead of the Oli Webb /Pierre Kaffer entered ByKolles and the sister Rebellion of Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld.
Stephane Richelmi jumped into an early lead in LMP2 in the 36 Alpine, just ahead of team mate Nelson Panciatici. It was short-lived however, with Filipe Albuquerque putting the RGR Sport by Morand Ligier at the head of the queue.
Rene Rast however would pull his usual trick and jumped the entire field to take LMP2 pole for G-Drive ahead of Signatech Alpine and Strakka Racing.
Richie Stanaway and Nicki Thiim led the way early for Aston Martin racing in GTE Pro, whilst Pedro Lamy did likewise in GTE Am in the sister team. Just as the second drivers were jumping in, the KCMG and Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing 911RSR’s make a strategic switch to slicks with just 7 minutes remaining. A gamble for the Am drivers who needed to get their bronze drivers through.
Paul Dalla Lana’s slick lap was about on par with Lamy’s, signalling the slick was the way to go, but with four minutes remaining most opted to keep their gold drivers on hot rubber.
Gianmaria Bruni jumped to provisional pole for AF Corse with one last chance for the Astons to Aston Martin to steal Ferrari’s thunder. Thiim was the man to do it alongside Marco Sorensen despite Bruni recording an individual lap half a second quicker than any other driver. Stephane Mucke and Olivier Pla took second place for Ford ahead of Stanaway and Turner.
Patrick Long held on to take the GTE Am pole for Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing in the 91RSR ahead of Michael Christensen in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche and Wolf Henzler in the KCMG 91RSR.
FULL RESULTS