TOYOTA says “Howdy” to Pole in Texas

The qualifying system in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) is different from what you may be used to in other series, both drivers must drive during the session and their best laps are averaged to give the lap time for the car. A little bit of rain on certain parts of the track at the begining sure made things interesting and then a red flag with 4 minutes to go interrupted the session when Nick Heifields Rebellion stopped on track. With lap times around the 1:50 for the fastest cars, those 4 minutes meant 2 laps which they took as a gift and did their best.

American Team representative Extreme Speed Motorsports set the third fastest combined lap time (LMP2) with their Tequila Patrón HPD ARX 038 – Honda proving they are up to the challenge and really have a good chance for a good result.

The qualifying results are as follows:

1. 8 Toyota Racing A. Davidson/N. Lapierre/S. Buemi 1:49.093
2. 14 Porsche Team R. Dumas/N. Jani/M. Lieb 1:50.283
3. 20 Porsche Team T. Bernhard/M. Webber/B. Hartley 1:50.302
4. 2 Audi Sport Team Joest M. Fässler/A. Lotterer/B. Tréluyer 1:50.340
5. 7 Toyota Racing A. Wurz/S. Sarrazin/M. Conway 1:50.363
6. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest L. Di Grassi/L. Duval/T. Kristensen 1:51.456
7. 13 Rebellion Racing D. Kraihamer/A. Belicchi/F. Leimer 1:54.665
8. 26 G-Drive Racing R. Rusinov/O. Pla/J. Canal 1:56.075
9. 47 KCMG M. Howson/R. Bradley/T. Matsuda 1:56.371
10. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports S. Sharp/R. Dalziel/E. Brown 1:57.262

Car No. 9 (Lotus – C. Bolichut/J. Rossiter/L. Auer) did not take part in qualifying and cars No. 12 and 37, the Rebellion and the Oreca 03R failed to complete the second driver qualigying rule.