WEC: Porsche steals Spa pole on final lap of qualifying

Porsche's Marc Lieb and Neel Jani ended a dramatic qualifying session at Spa today by snatching pole position in the No. 14 919 Hybrid on the final lap of the 30-minute session.

The duo's 2:01.198 average helped the German marque to earn its first World Endurance Championship pole in just its second race among the LMP1-H prototypes. With light fading and some semblance of grip beginning to appear towards the end of the session, many P1 and P2 teams abandoned their best laps set in drying conditions to go for last-minute runs on new slicks, forcing both qualifying drivers to reset their times as the clock wound down.
With the No. 14 Porsche among the final cars on a flying lap once time ran out, Lieb crossed the finish line with a handy margin over the field to end an intense flurry of activity.

"We had a difficult Silverstone and would have never thought we'd have gotten pole here," said Jani. "Great teamwork today."

The V4 turbo-powered Porsche was well clear of the second-place No. 8 Toyota TS040, gapping the Japanese P1-H by 0.638 seconds. The Toyota's 2:01.836 was much closer to Porsche than the leading No. 2 Audi R18 which secured third on the grid, albeit 1.301 seconds behind the leading 919 with a 2:02.499 average.

KCMG earned P2 pole in the No. 47 Oreca-Nissan (2:12.103) ahead of SMP Racing's ORECA-Nissan (2:12.751). The Japanese manufacturer swept P2 qualifying with G-Drive Racing's Morgan-Nissan (2:13.143) rounding out the top-3.

GTE Pro pole position went to Gimmi Bruni and Toni Vilander in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari F458 (2:32.338) as the track transition from wet to nearly dry by the end of the separate 30-minute session for GTE cars. The No. 97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage (2:32.505) and the No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR (2:32.581) claimed third.

GTE Am pole went to the sister No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari F458 entry (2:33.962). Prospeed Competition's No. 75 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2:33.981) and the No. 81 AF Corse Ferrari (2:34.039) followed.​