Porsche Takes Pole for 6H Nürburgring

Photo: Porsche

Porsche continued its dominant mark on qualifying in the FIA World Endurance Championship, with the pair of 919 Hybrids sweeping the front row for Sunday’s Six Hours of Nürburgring.

Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas took the No. 18 Porsche to the top of the time charts, combining for a best two-lap average of 1:36.473 in the 20-minute qualifying session.

The duo’s average edged out teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard by 0.069 seconds for another 1-2 sweep by the German manufacturer.

It marked Lieb and Dumas’ second consecutive pole, following co-driver Neel Jani’s pole-winning lap at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

The No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grass was third, followed by teammates Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer, who qualified in fourth, but each more than one-second adrift.

Defending World Champions Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi could only muster fifth in their No. 1 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, which was more than two seconds off the pace from the pole-sitting Porsche.

Quickest of the LMP1 non-hybrids was the No. 12 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One AER of Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost.

A late charge by Nick Tandy took KCMG to the pole in the LMP2 class.

The Porsche factory driver on-loan reeled off a 1:45.163 in the No. 47 Oreca 05 Nissan, with his combined average with co-driver Matt Howson ending up nearly four tenths clear of the competition.

It marked the Hong Kong-backed squad’s second consecutive class pole as Tandy, Howson and Richard Bradley seek back-to-back wins following respective victories at Le Mans.

For Tandy, his first pole in LMP2 kept the Englishman’s streak going, on the heels of two poles and three consecutive GTLM class wins in TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition.

The No. 26 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan of Julian Canal and Sam Bird qualified second, ahead of the Nelson Panciatici and Vincent Capillaire-qualified Signatech-Alpine A450b Nissan in third.

American squad Tequila Patron ESM continued its struggles this weekend, with the pair of Ligier-Hondas set to line up seventh and eighth in class, with Ryan Dalziel and David Heinemeier Hansson unable to get within two seconds of the pole-sitting Oreca-Nissan.

The FIA WEC Six Hours of Nürburgring gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), live on FOX Sports 2.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

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