Jaubert Scores Maiden Pole for Genesis at Barcelona

Genesis Magma Racing has scored a first FIA World Endurance Championship pole after Mathys Jaubert topped qualifying for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Barcelona.

FIA Silver-rated driver Jaubert clocked a 1:30.329 on his first flying effort aboard the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 that was good enough for pole, but then improved to a 1:30.166 to finish up 0.170 seconds ahead of the No. 8 Toyota TR010 of points leader Ryo Hirakawa.

It was nearly a Genesis front-row lock-out as Mathieu Jaminet bounced back from the car stopping coming out of the pits at the start of the opening qualifying session with a lack of a power to end up third.

Jaminet did also briefly come to a halt on track during Hyperpole but had already got a fast time on the board.

Charles Milesi in the No. 35 Signatech Alpine A424 was fourth fastest on a 1:30.722, while Will Stevens in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R rounded out the top-five.

Robert Kubica was sixth quickest in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, just ahead of the second Alpine of Victor Martins.

Antonio Fuoco was only eighth in the No. 50 factory Ferrari, but he had a time deleted for exceeding track limits that would have been good enough for fourth spot.

The top-ten was then completed by the second Toyota of Nyck de Vries — six tenths slower than teammate Hirakawa — and the second Cadillac of Jack Aitken.

Neither of the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyries progressed into Hyperpole, despite the No. 007 machine topping the FP2 leaderboard on Friday.

The No. 009 car of Alex Riberas missed out by 0.032 seconds while the No. 007 will start 12th as Harry Tincknell was fractionally slower.

Antonio Giovinazzi in the No. 51 Ferrari was another to miss out and, although he lost a time to track-limits abuses, it would not have been enough for him to progress.

The WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s and Peugeot 9X8s were also both eliminated, with Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 20 BMW only 14th fastest having been over a second off the pace.

The start of the opening session of Hypercar qualifying was delayed by 15 minutes while repairs were made to the track at the final corner.

Attention now turns to Sunday’s 6 Hours of Barcelona contest, which is due to get under way at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. EST).