Silverstone presented a dry track under grey skies for qualifying for Round 3 of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship.  The battle for the top spot was between the two Toyotas but it was too close to call throughout the session for the LMP competitors. 

The session was interrupted by a red flag when the no 29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara of Frits Van Eerd spun off into the gravel at T9.  The car was recovered and the session resumed.

In the end it was the no7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the top of the time sheets after Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez set an average lap time of 1m36.895.  This was 0.411s ahead of their teammates Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima in the no8 Toyota.

SMP Racing led the way in the non hybrid LMP1 competition with Jenson Button and Vitaly Petrov setting a lap of 1m38.932 in the no11 BR01-AER.

The LMP2 grid will see the two Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibsons on the front row with the no37 Oreca of Jazeman Jaffar and Nabil Jeffri claiming their debut WEC pole position with a 1m44.896 lap.  Their teammates in the no38 Oreca finished the session just 0.187s behind, with Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry setting an average lap of 1m45.083.

The no36 Signatech Alpine was third quickest but 1.4 seconds behind the lead car.

LMGTE: Ford and Aston Martin Head to Head

Ford converted their pace in practice into a second pole position of the season with Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke claiming the top spot in the LMGTE Pro category with an average lap time of 1m55.727 in the no66 Ford GT. 

Ford didn’t have it all their own way as the two Aston Martin Racing Vantages finished 2nd and 3rd fastest, splitting the two Fords and pushing the no67 Ford GT into 4th place.

The no97 Vantage of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin finished teh 20-minute session just 0.078 seconds behind the lead Ford and three tenths ahead of their teammates Nicky Thiim and Marco Sorensen in the no95 Aston Martin.

The Team Project 1 Porsche took the top spot in the LMGTE Am category after Edigio Perfetti and Jorg Bergmeister set a 1m59.001 average lap late in the session to demoted the no90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Jonny Adam and Salih Yoluc into second position.

Qualifying for the 6 Hours of Silverstone is scheduled for 12h00.