With blue skies and warm temperatures providing perfect weather conditions pole position for Round 7 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Fuji, was decided by the narrowest of margins. The top five LMP1 cars were split by less than 0.3 seconds and the top two by just 0.025 seconds. 

The no8 Audi R18 of Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi will start the 6 Hours of Fuji from pole position with a 1m23.570 average lap time, with the no1 Porsche 919 of Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber taking second place.  Webber returned to the cockpit after setting the first time in the car and posted his fastest time with two minutes left on the clock to put the Porsche on the front row.

The two Toyota TS050s will start their home race on row 2. The Japanese fans were hopefully of a home pole for team when Kazuki Nakajima in the no5 Toyota was the quickest driver in the first part of the session and Sebastien Buemi looked on course for a front row start before Webbers last flying lap bumped the Swiss driver down to row 2 alongside his teammates Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi in the no6 car. 

The no7 Audi R18 of Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer was 5th fastest ahead of the championship leading Porsche of Neel Jani and Marc Lieb, who finished the session 0.564s behind the pole time.

The LMP1 Privateer pole was secured by the no13 Rebellion Racing R-One with Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori finishing one second ahead of the no4 Bykolles CLM-AER.

G-Drive Racing Secure Pole Number Five

The no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca-Nissan will start from the front of the LMP2 grid for the fifth time in the 2016 season with Will Stevens and Roman Rusinov posting a 1m31.698 lap, 0.221 seconds ahead of championship leaders Nico Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes in the no36 Signatech Alpine A460-Nissan. 

The brand new driver line up in the no30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-Nissan will head the second row of the LMP2 grid at the start of the 6 Hours of Fuji, with Antonio Giovinazzi and Sean Gelael posting a 1m31.945, just 0.026 seconds behind the no36 Signatech Alpine.  The no42 Strakka Racing Gibson-Nissan of Jonny Kane and Lewis Williamson will join the no30 Ligier on row 2, with the British duo posting a 1m32.007 despite Kane spinning off the track pushing hard as the chequered flag was shown to end the session.

Ford 1-2 in LMGTE PRO

Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK scored their first pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship and celebrated with a 1-2 front row lockout for the 6 Hours of Fuji tomorrow.

The no66 Ford GT of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla will start at the front of the LMGTE grid with a two lap average of 1m37.681, just 0.044s ahead of their teammates Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell in the no67 Ford GT. 

The no71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird will head row two, 0.329 seconds adrift of the leading Ford with the no51 Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado in 4th.

Aston Martin Claim 4th Season Pole in Japan

The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana scored their fourth LMGTE AM pole position of the 2016 season with the Portuguese-Canadian duo posting an average laptime of 1m39.490, just ahead of the no83 AF Corse Ferrari F458 of Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo.  Dalla Lana came into the pits early after setting a 1m39.521 average but Perrodo closed the gap to a few hundredths and the Canadian driver returned to the track to lower the average time even further to put their pole position beyond doubt.

Third place on the LMGTE AM grid was taken by the no50 Larbre Competition Corvette with Japanese driver Yutaka Yamagishi closing the gap in the final few minutes to the leading two cars after Ricky Taylor set a good first time.  The no88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche was 4th fastest ahead of the no78 KCMG Porsche and the no86 Gulf Racing Porsche.

The 6 Hours of Fuji, Round 7 of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship will start 11h00 on Sunday 16 October.