The no1 Porsche 919 will start from the front of the grid for the second time in 2016 with Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley setting the benchmark time of 1m44.462.  However Hartley had his first time deleted for track limits and had to jump back in the car after Webber had set his time so an average lap could be recorded.  Luckily Hartley’s best lap of 1m44.618 was good enough to give them pole. 

The no5 Toyota TS050 of Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima will join them on the front row, with an average lap time that was just 0.06 seconds behind the Porsche.    In fact the six LMP1 manufacturers were split by just 0.589 seconds with the no8 Audi in 3rd, the no6 Toyota in 4th, the no7 Audi in 5th and the championship leaders in the no2 Porsche in 6th overall.

The leading LMP1 Privateer was once again the no13 Rebellion, Alexandre Imperatori and Dominik Kraihamer posting a 1m49.828 average lap time, 1.5 seconds ahead of the no4 Bykolles CLM-AER.

The LMP2 class saw a debut pole position for Manor with Matt Rao and Alex Lynn putting the no44 Oreca at the head of the LMP2 field with an average 1m54.225 lap, pushing the championship leaders Nicolas Lapierre and Stephane Richelmi in the no36 Signatech Alpine A460 down to second by 0.157 seconds.  The no30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier was third quickest and will be joined on the second row by the 6 Hours of Fuji race winners in the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca.

The LMGTE Pro class also saw a debut pole position for Ford with the no67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx heading up a Ford 1-2 with a 2m01.391 lap, just 0.137 seconds ahead of their teammates Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke in the no66 car.  The no95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen were third quickest with a 2m02.040 average lap, with the no51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado joining them on row two.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana scored their fifth LMGTE Am pole of the 2016 season in the no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage.  The Portuguese-Canadian duo set a 2m04.997 lap despite Dalla Lana’s first lap being deleted by the Stewards for exceeding track limits. The championship leading no83AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia of Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo was second fastest in the class, 0.337 seconds behind the Aston Martin.

The 6 Hours of Shanghai is Round 8 of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.  The race will get underway at 11h00 (local) / 04h00 (CET) on Sunday 6 November.