With the threat of rain the LMP competitors headed out on track early for qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
The rain did arrive on parts of the circuit with minutes remaining and it was a Porsche 1-2 ahead of tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Mexico, Round 5 of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, when the chequered flag fell.
Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard took their first pole of the 2017 season in the no2 Porsche 919 hybrid with an average lap time of 1m24.562, 0.148 ahead of Nick Tandy and Andre Lotterer in the no1 car.
The no7 Toyota was the quickest of the Japanese manufacturer entrants with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez posting a 1m24.802, just 0.240 behind the pole sitters. The no8 Toyota was 0.816s off the pace of the no2 Porsche at the end of the session.
The LMP2 pole went to the no36 Signatech Alpine A470-Gibson of Andre Negrão and Nicolas Lapierre for the first time this season. The Frano-Brazilian pairing posted a 1m32.809s average, 0.296s ahead of the championship leading no38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 of Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung.
Ferrari Take GTE Pole in Mexico
The Sam Bird and Davide Rigon took their second pole position of the 2017 season in the no71 AF Corse Ferrari F488 to start tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Mexico at the front of the GTE field.
Rigon and Bird posted an average lap of 1m39.425, a new GTE qualifying lap record, over 1 second better than last year’s time. Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen finished qualifying in the no95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage in second spot just 0.109s behind the Ferrari.
Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell claim third with a two lap average of 1m39.640s to make it three different manufacturers in leading positions, with just 0.8 seconds covering the whole LMGTE Pro field.
The no77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR grabbed a debut pole position as Matteo Cairoli and Christian Ried set an average time of 1m42.056s. A late challenge by Aston Martin Racing’s Pedro Lamy fell short by just 0.042s at the end of the 20 minute qualifying period.
The 6 Hours of Mexico, Round 5 of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, is due to start at 12h00 / 19h00 CET on Sunday 3 September.
