News
Qualifying
Stuttgart. The two
The weather situation in Japan remains the main topic of the seventh of nine rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). With the track being wet at varying levels in all practice sessions, it was difficult to get the cars’ set-up right. To avoid an approaching downpour, qualifying was advanced by half an hour but it still rained. For the race on Sunday, 11:00-17:00 hrs local time, more rain is forecast.
Qualifying drivers this time were Bamber and Hartley for car number 2. The average of their best lap times was 1:35.160 minutes. Lotterer and Tandy at the wheel of car number 1 came second with an average lap time of 1:35.231 minutes. The overall fastest lap on the 4.56 kilometre long speedway in the foothills of Mount Fuji was recorded by Tandy in 1:35.068 minutes. Free practice three on Saturday morning saw the two 919 Hybrids finishing second and third.
Ahead of the Japanese round of the world championship,
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “Due to the bad weather forecast for tomorrow it is very important to have both
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “Congratulations to the entire team for another front row lock-out – the third time in a row. The weather conditions made it a really difficult day for us, in free practice 3 we were struggling. But the team did a super job with the changes to both 919 Hybrids before qualifying. We could use the cars’ full potential and the drivers did brilliantly on track. However, qualifying is just a small step. For tomorrow the weather forecast is even worse. The race will be a big challenge.”
Drivers
Neel Jani (33, Switzerland): “Today I only did a few laps in free practice three. There was a lot less water on the track than yesterday, but somehow it was very greasy. We have to analyse why it was so slippery. The rest we will see. Regarding the weather, tomorrow will be a kind of survival training.”
André Lotterer (35, Germany): “It was very slippery on the wet track. Unfortunately we just missed out on pole position. I tried a second attempt but got stuck in traffic. It didn’t work out. But, of course, another 1-2 in qualifying for
Nick Tandy (32, Great Britain): “Qualifying was really difficult in the wet conditions because you obviously don’t want to make a mistake as you need to put a lap time in but you still need to push. In the end we got the fastest lap times with both our cars. I’m especially pleased for Earl as it is his first pole position in WEC and it is good the number 2 car got the one point for the championship as well.”
Drivers
Earl Bamber (27, New Zealand): “It is fantastic to get another one-two for the team and to get my first ever pole position in the WEC. To share with BH, a fellow Kiwi as well, is very special for me. It was a hard fight with car number 1. They really threw everything out of their window and we both were backed up as well. It was a great effort from the team and from
Brendon Hartley (27, New Zealand): “It could be any conditions for the race tomorrow, perhaps even with monsoon conditions coming. This one point we got for pole position today could prove to be very crucial in the fight for the championship title. Lap times in qualifying were pretty close and we are obviously very happy with the result.”
TV and live streaming:
- The official WEC App can be downloaded free of charge with an extended (not free of charge) version available which includes full live streaming and full timing. The live stream is voiced by the FIA WEC TV team including live interviews from the pits.
- The WEC races can be followed on various international TV channels in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North and South America as well as in the Middle East and Africa. Details at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y994hbo5
All scores: http://www.fiawec.com/en/season/result
All results: http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com
All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.