Audi edged out Toyota to claim pole position for Sunday’s sixth round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji.
Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer topped the times aboard the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro with a four-lap average of 1m26.577s, which put them just under two tenths clear of Sebatien Buemi and Anthony Davidson in the best of the Toyota TS030 HYBRIDs.
Treluyer, who will be joined in the car by Marcel Fassler along with Lotterer for the race, said: “I had no idea I was fighting with the #7 car; I was just giving my best.
“On the out-lap, I was struggling with the rear, so I was surprised that Andre had done two such good laps. Then I understood that the car was really good and I realised I just needed to warm-up the rear tyres a bit more.”
Kazuki Nakajima and Nicolas Lapierre claimed third place in the the second of the two Toyotas with an average a further tenth behind their sister car.
The second Audi, qualified by Allan McNish and Loic Duval, ended up nearly a second down on their team-mates.
McNish complained that he had been unable to “hook up the tyres”.
LMP2 honours went to the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan driven by Bertrand Baguette and Martin Plowman, who were a tenth clear of the G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 03 shared by Mike Conway and John Martin.
Aston Martin Racing claimed both GTE classes: Frederic Makowiecki and Stefan Mucke took the Pro pole and Bruno Senna and Christoffer Nygaard the top spot in the Am division.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time Cl Gap 1. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 1m26.577s 2. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 1m26.755s +0.178s 3. P1 Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima Toyota 1m26.860s +0.283s 4. P1 Kristensen/Duval/McNish Audi 1m27.425s +0.848s 5. P1 Belicchi/Beche Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m29.250s +2.673s 6. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m32.938s 7. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m33.019s +0.081s 8. P2 Hiranaka/Ueda/Wirdheim Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m33.073s +0.135s 9. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m33.097s +0.159s 10. P2 Graves/Walker/Nakano Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m33.209s +0.271s 11. P2 Bradley/Koizumi/Matsuda KCMG Morgan-Nissan 1m33.512s +0.574s 12. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m33.525s +0.587s 13. P2 Weeda/Rossiter/Liuzzi Lotus 1m34.080s +1.142s 14. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus 1m34.246s +1.308s 15. P2 Nicolet/Ihara OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m35.408s +2.470s 16. GTE P Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki Aston Martin 1m39.114s 17. GTE P Lamy/Stanaway Aston Martin 1m39.591s +0.477s 18. GTE P Bruni/Fisichella AF Ferrari 1m39.693s +0.579s 19. GTE P Bergmeister/Pilet Manthey Porsche 1m39.736s +0.622s 20. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Manthey Porsche 1m39.778s +0.664s 21. GTE A Nygaard/Poulsen/Senna Aston Martin 1m40.649s 22. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 1m40.814s +0.165s 23. GTE A Hall/Campbell-Walter/Adam Aston Martin 1m40.824s +0.175s 24. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 1m41.311s +0.662s 25. GTE A Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon 8Star Ferrari 1m41.369s +0.720s 26. GTE A Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 1m41.529s +0.880s 27. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 1m41.625s +0.976s 28. GTE A Narac/Vernay/Palttala Imsa Porsche 1m41.683s +1.034s
