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FIA WEC

Audi Sweeps Front Row for 6H Silverstone

Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler lead Audi 1-2 in qualifying at Silverstone…

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Audi has swept the front row for Sunday’s Six Hours of Silverstone, breaking Porsche’s previous stranglehold in qualifying in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler ended on top of the 20-minute, drying qualifying session, combining for a best two-lap average of 1:53.204 in their No. 7 Audi R18.

Their combined time was 0.104 seconds quicker than teammates Loid Duval and Lucas Di Grassi by 0.104 seconds.

Lotterer and Fassler’s top qualifying effort broke Porsche’s 11-race pole streak in WEC and marked the first pole for the German manufacturer since Fuji in 2013.

The 2013 World Champions will share the wheel of their new diesel-powered contender with Benoit Treluyer in Sunday’s season-opener.

Porsche was relegated to third and fourth on the grid, with the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley only able to reel off a 1:54.150 average, which was nearly one-second slower than the Audi.

The sister Porsche 919 Hybrid, qualified by Neel Jani and Romain Dumas, was fourth, followed by the pair of Toyota TS050 Hybrids, which both battled boost issues in the session.

ByKolles Racing scored top qualifying honors in LMP1 Privateer, after at least one driver from each Rebellion R-One AER did not set laps in the 20-minute session.

A late flyer by Rene Rast, in drying conditions, saw G-Drive Racing score pole in the LMP2 class.

Rast and co-driver Roman Rusinov’s average of 2:08.479 put the Jota Sport-run squad on pole in its full-season debut. They’ll be joined at the wheel of the No. 26 Oreca 05 Nissan by Nathanael Berton on Sunday.

The No. 31 Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2 Nissan qualified second, thanks to Pipo Derani and Chris Cumming’s 2:09.632 average.

Derani, meanwhile, set the session’s quickest single quickest lap, just 0.059 seconds quicker than Rast’s best.

The No. 43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier Nissan will start third in class, with the pair of SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 Nissans completing the top-five in class.

The Six Hours of Silverstone gets underway Sunday at 12 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) with live coverage on FOX Sports 1.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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