McLaren on pole for LMGT3 in WEC 6 Hours of Barcelona
Thomas Fleming and Antares Au have given the No.10 Garage 59 McLaren crew pole position for the WEC 6 Hours of Barcelona. The No.92 Porsche starts second, with the No.21 Ferrari in third.
Qualifying
The first of the World Endurance Championship's (WEC's) split qualifying sessions got under way at 11:50 local time this morning, with all 18 LMGT3s heading out, fitted with their Bronze drivers for the 12 minute session. Only the top 10 would make it through to Hyperpole here.
Steffano Gattuso looked quick through the start and middle of the session, before Peter Dempsey in the No.34 TF Corvette topped him with three minutes to go.
In the drop zone though was the sister No.77 Ford of Eric Powell, joined by both Aston Martins, the No.54 Ferrari - which had looked quick in practice - the No.87 Lexus, No.69 BMW, No.79 Mercedes and the No.58 McLaren.
Personal best sectors were coming from Thomas Flohr and Petru Umbraescu in the No.54 and No.87, both shooting up the order to 12th and 13th, but crucially still out of the top 10.
Anthony McIntosh seemed to be struggling quite a bit in the No.69, with his engineer giving him some encouragement. "I know this is super difficult Anthony, but I just want a perfect lap from you, hit every apex". He delivered that lap, going 14th, but not enough to go top.
James Cottingham was knocked out by Umbraescu in the Lexus, and he improved on his final lap, but didn't do enough to get back into the top 10.
Powell in the No.77 finally found the time he needed, going 10th, knocking the No.78 Lexus out of the top 10 by just 0.018 of a second.
That meant that the cars knocked out of the session were the No.78 Lexus, No.91 Porsche, No.54 Ferrari, No.23 Aston Martin, No.69 BMW, No.58 McLaren, No.79 Mercedes and the No.27 Aston Martin. Aston Martin were the only brand with no car in the top 10, but Corvette were the only ones with two cars in the top 10.
Crucially, the car in dead last on the grid, the No.27 Heart of Racing car, is the car in second place in the championship.
Hyperpole
It was a shorter, 10 minute session, for the Silver drivers in Hyperpole. No eliminations in this one, just who can set the fastest time in their bid for pole position, and the crucial championship point that comes with it.
Simon Mann, who was quickest in FP3 earlier in the morning, was quickest when the first laps began to come through. A 1:41.435 putting him top, but just 0.025 seconds ahead of Jonny Edgar in the No.33 Corvette. Sean Gelael was third in the No.32 BMW, two tenths back.
Riccardo Pera in the No.92 Porsche beat all three though, a 1:41.0 putting him top by three tenths. That was quickly beaten by Thomas Fleming in the No.10 McLaren, the first man into the 1:40s - a 1:40.933.
Improvments seemed to come slower now, the tyres going off slightly towards the end of the session. Fleming managed a purple middle sector, but he lost out in the final sector.
No one else found anymore time in the final laps of the session, meaning Fleming topped the session and took pole position.
Pera finished second for the No.92, with Mann in the No.21 in third. Jonny Edgar in the No.33 Corvette was fourth in the championship leading car, with Rui Andrade in the No.61 Mercedes in fifth.
Then was Gelael in the No.32 BMW, with Clemens Schmid in the No.87 Lexus seventh. Ben Tuck and Giammarco Levorato in the No.77 and No.88 Ford's were eighth and ninth, woth Salih Yoluc in the No.34 Corvette in tenth.
Comments