News
Qualifying
Stuttgart. The
The number 18 car of drivers Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) is going to start from pole position for the third time this year. The number 17 car of Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AUS) will be next to them on the grid for tomorrow’s six-hour race at the challenging Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (US).
In the WEC the average of the best laps of two drivers counts for the grid position. Jani/Lieb achieved an average time of 1:46.211 minutes, with Jani putting in the overall fastest lap with a time of 1:46.018 minutes. Bernhard/Hartley shared qualifying duties in the number 17 car and achieved an average lap time of 1:46.375 minutes.
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “It is our ninth pole position in the 12 races since the 919’s debut in 2014, and, again, we also topped the time sheets in all free practice sessions. In our second season everything is really running extremely well for our young team. For the race the most important thing is not to lose focus on the manufacturers’ championship. I’d like to say thank you to the team here on site and back home in Weissach, who make such good results possible by their tireless work.”
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “Today we came up with excitement by ourselves. Because of a sensor problem on the hybrid system, Neel didn’t have the car’s full power system available on his first lap. This was why we wanted him to jump into the car again at the end of the session to be on the safe side. The entire team put in another outstanding performance, especially considering the heat. After we struggled here last year, it is very rewarding to see such a strong performance, which is down to the many developments we did to the car.”
Alexander Hitzinger, Technical Director: “Neel lost time on his first lap because of a hybrid system failure, and then in the end he showed what that car is able of. All the drivers once again put in strong performances. Meanwhile, we have an impressive series of one-two finishes in qualifying to our tally. Tomorrow over the long race distance the track temperatures and, therefore, the performance of the tyres will be a crucial factor.”
Drivers
Timo Bernhard (34, Germany): “It was a tight qualifying with another fantastic result for
Brendon Hartley (25, New Zealand): “I started qualifying and it was a bit unfortunate that I was held up by our number 18 car when Neel had some problems, but I kept pushing and another one-two in qualifying is just great for the team.“
Drivers
Neel Jani (31, Switzerland): “At my first attempt I had problems with the red flag and then I had no boost. But still I had to drive my lap as quickly as possible. We were able to fix that problem for Marc. In the end I went out again because the Audi got too close, but I didn’t personally expect that pole position was still possible on a used set of tyres.”
Marc Lieb (35, Germany): “Of course I’m very happy about our pole position. Neel did a great job in the end. My earlier lap was okay too. In the last sector I lost a little bit of time, but overall I’m really satisfied.”
All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.