No8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 – Pole Position

Lucas di Grassi: “My tyres were best at the beginning, but I had to abort my first lap because I hit traffic. I’m obviously happy that it was still enough in the end.”

Loïc Duval: “From the practice sessions, we knew how close it would be. Lucas was a little unfortunate with traffic, whereas things went well in my case. The result is a great team performance because we got everything right on the mark – our engineers and mechanics, as well as us drivers.”

No7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 – 5th LMP1

André Lotterer: “We’re still a little puzzled a bit over this. The car was running without any problem, but we simply didn’t achieve the same lap times as our sister car.”

Benoît Tréluyer: “Twice, other cars got in my way, so I lost my concentration a little. When I attacked once more afterwards I slightly got off the line in turn 15. That meant a better result wasn’t possible today.”

No1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid – 2nd LMP1
Timo Bernhard: “We have no reason to blame ourselves. We were fighting hard and missed a possible pole position by three hundreds of a second, which, of course, it is a shame. Mark did two super laps and my lap was good. Now we have to rethink and switch to race mode, tomorrow is the day that counts.”

Mark Webber: “It was a really good fight for pole today. It wasn’t quite enough for us, but Timo and I we were both happy with our best laps and we are in good shape for the race.”

No2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid – 6th LMP1
Neel Jani: “It wasn’t a good qualifying for us. We have to look into it and find out why that was. Personally I didn’t get together an ideal lap and wasn’t entirely happy with the car either. Now we have to make sure to get everything right for tomorrow. Given how the competition level is, we might see a really hot race.”

Marc Lieb: “P6 isn’t great. The number one crew fully exploited what was possible and we didn’t. It was very exciting but we were unlucky in traffic. The competition is so tight, if you lose two or three tenth of second, you find yourself back in sixth place.”

No5 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid – 3rd LMP1

Sébastien Buemi: “That was the best qualifying of the season for us; we have never been so close to pole position with this car so I am really happy. We are within two tenths of pole which shows the progress we made. Now hopefully we can have a really competitive race tomorrow.”

Kazuki Nakajima: “It was a surprisingly exciting qualifying for us and it is the first time for a while that we could really fight for pole position. It was fun and I am happy with the result, which is more than we expected. We still want to improve the set-up for the race when I hope we can reward the Japanese fans for their great support.”

No6 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid – 4th LMP1

Stéphane Sarrazin: “It was nice to be competitive. I made a mistake on my last flying lap; I pushed a bit too much. I was really quick in the first sector and improving the lap time but unfortunately I didn’t finish the lap properly. We are happy with fourth when we are so close to pole. Let’s see what we can do in the race.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “This morning we were struggling a bit with the set-up but the team did a great job to get the best time in qualifying. Unfortunately it was not quite enough for pole position but I think fourth is okay because usually we are stronger in the race, which is of course the most important part of the weekend.”

No66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT – Pole Position LMGTE Pro

Olivier Pla: “Qualifying went perfectly for us. We have made progress every time we have gone on the track here. The car felt great from the start so I had the confidence to push hard on each flying lap. We work together closely with the #67 car, sharing information, so we learn from them and they learn from us and that is paying off. It was a very close session so I am happy for us and for Ford. Now we have to make sure we do a good job tomorrow.”

No67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT – 2nd LMGTE Pro

Andy Priaulx:  “I was following Olivier (Pla) on his fastest lap and he did a great job. I’m really happy because we have been P1 or P2 in every session since we arrived here in Japan. We had a little bit more understeer in qualifying compared to the practice sessions and we ended up less than a tenth of a second off the #66 car so it was a good close fight. There’s a big race coming tomorrow and we’re looking forward to the battle.”