An exciting qualifying session, which was interrupted by a red flag with less than four minutes left on the clock, saw the no8 Audi R18 of Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi secure their first pole position of 2016, finishing ahead of the no2 Porsche 919 of Neel Jani and Marc Lieb by the narrowest of margins.  The Franco-Brazilian duo posted an average lap time of 1m25.069, just 0.042 ahead of the Porsche. 

The no7 Audi of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler will head the second row for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Mexico, 0.281 seconds behind their teammates and just 0.05 ahead of Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley in the no1 Porsche.  The two Toyota’s will start on row 3 with Kaz Nakajima and Seb Buemi in 5th, just under 0.9 seconds adrift of the pole position lap time.  The no6 TS050, which was repaired overnight after the crash in yesterday morning’s collective test struggled to get up to speed and Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi finished the session 2.2 seconds off the pace.

The LMP1 Privateer pole went to the no13 Rebellion Racing R-One, with Dominik Kraihamar and Alex Imperatori setting an average lap time of 1m29.909, 1.8 seconds ahead of the no4 Bykolles Racing Team CLM of Simon Trummer and Pierre Kaffer.

After four poles from four races for the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca, the class honours went to another team for the first time in 2016 and it was the Mexican team RGR Sport by Morand who claimed the top spot at home.  Bruno Senna and Ricardo Gonzalez posted a 1m35.485 to finish the session 0.334 seconds ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine A460 of current LMP2 championship leaders Nico Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes. 

The red flag was shown after Lapierre went off on a fast lap at Turn 7, hitting the Tech Pro barriers hard.  The French driver recovered the car to the pits and the session resumed for a three minute dash to the chequered flag.

The no42 Strakka Racing Gibson-Nissan of Lewis Williamson and Jonny Kane will start the 6 Hours of Mexico on row 2 alongside the no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Rene Rast and Roman Rusinov.

Aston Martin Take Pole in LMGTE

At the end of qualifying Aston Martin secured pole position in both LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am with the no95 Vantage of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thim taking the Pro pole and the no98 Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana taking the Am.  However in post qualifying scutineering the ride height of the car was measured lower than 55mm and was therefore in breach of the technical regulations.  The no98 car was excluded from the results of qualifying and will start at the back of the grid.

The no97 Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway and Darren Turner will line up alongside their no95 teammates for the 6 Hours of Mexico tomorrow after they posted an average time just 0.142 seconds slower.

The no51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado was third quickest, 0.576 seconds behind the pole car, with the no77 Dempsey –Proton Racing Porsche taking the fourth place slot by just 0.043s ahead of the no71 AF Corse Ferrari.

The two Ford GTs were 6th and 7th with the no66 Ford of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke finishing ahead of the no67 car of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.  Priaulx had a spin at Turn 12 and clipped the barriers before coming back into the pits to hand over to Tincknell. 

The LMGTE Am class saw the no98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana take the chequered flag as the fastest car in the class finishing 0.402 seconds ahead of the no88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche of Pat Long and Khaled Al Qubaisi.  However in post qualifying scutineering the ride height of the car was measured lower than 55mm and was therefore in breach of the technical regulations (Stewards Decision no6).  The no98 car was excluded from the results of qualifying and will start at the back of the grid, promoting the no88 Porsche into the top spot.

The no86 Gulf Racing Porsche was third quickest ahead of the no78 KCMG Porsche in the qualifying session.  Championship leaders Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo in the no83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 finished in 6th place behind the no50 Larbre Competition Corvette.

The 6 Hours of Mexico, which is Round 5 of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, will start at 13h30 (local) on Saturday 3 September.

CLICK HERE for the result from qualifying for the 6 Hours of Mexico presented by AT&T