Neel Jani came through in a clinch to snag pole position and make it an all Porsche front row for tomorrow’s 6 hours of the Circuit of the Americas, from Austin, Texas.
The Swiss driver put in a flyer in his No. 18 919 hybrid crossing the line with a strong 1:46.018 displacing the sister car of Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber by just 0.146 of a second.
Behind the dominant Porsches lines up the first Audi machine of Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi. The championship leading Audi of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler.
The Toyotas took their usual spots of fifth and sixth on the grid, never quite on terms with the Porsche or Audi crews, but still far ahead of the Rebellion cars that once again led the privateer effort.
Despite causing a red flag for stopping on track early in the qualifying session the KCMG Oreca 05 machine claimed a shock pole in LMP2, edging out the N0. 26 G-Driver racing Ligier.
In GTE the No. 99 Aston Martin of Fernando Rees and Richie Stanaway will start on pole ahead of the N0. 91 Porsche 911. GTEAM had some of the best action of the day with the Dempsey-Proton Porsche squad claiming its first ever pole position. Patrick Dempsey clearly thrilled with his team’s first pole as the actor turned racer moves ever closer to full on racer first, actor second.
Image: Porsche
