By alley - May 6, 2016, 1:01 PM ET

WEC: Porsche locks out front row for Spa

Porsche blocked out the top two positions in qualifying for this weekend's Spa round of the World Endurance Championship. Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard took the pole by nearly eight of tenths of second from team-mates Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.

Hartley was quickest of the first group of drivers with a 1m55.691s aboard the #1 919 Hybrid, before Bernhard posted a 1m55.895s to end up with a 1m55.793s average. Jani was six tenths slower than Hartley and Lieb ended up over a second behind Bernhard on the way to their average of 1m56.590s.

Hartley told Autosport: "The lap didn't feel perfect; I think everyone is fighting the track. I got a banker and Timo almost did the same lap time, but the gap over our teammates surprised us."

Toyota took third spot with the #6 TS050 HYBRID driven by Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarrazin with a 1m57.698s average. Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval were less than a tenth back in fourth place with a 1m57.743s average aboard their Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

A lap from Rene Rast over half a second faster than anyone else in class gave the German and G-Drive Racing ORECA teammate Roman Rusinov the LMP2 pole.

Rusinov was initially sixth on a 2m08.407s after having to abort his quickest lap courtesy of a red flag, but a 2m06.748s from Rast vaulted the Jota-run car to the front of the P2 pack. The Russian subsequently returned to the track to set a 2m07.979s to give them a final average of 2m07.363s. That put them half a second up on the Signatech Alpine ORECA coupe shared by Gustavo Menezes and Nicolas Lapierre.

The best of the Manor ORECAs qualified by Roberto Merhi and Matt Rao was a further two tenths back in third.

Davide Rigon and Sam Bird again overcame AF Corse Ferrari teammates James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni at the top of the GTE Pro order. Rigon was quickest of the first batch of drivers with a 2m17.813s before Bird went quicker with a 2m17.657s to give them a 2m17.644s average. Calado posted a 2m18.247s and Bruni set two laps in the 2m18s before getting down to a 2m17.835s to lower their average to 2m17.961s.

The best of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs was just two hundredths back on a 2m17.987s average in the hands of Fernando Rees and Richie Stanaway.

Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana claimed pole in GTE Am for Aston Martin.

QUALIFYING RESULT

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m55.793s
2	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	0.797s
3	LMP1	S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1.905s
4	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1.923s
5	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1.957s
6	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	2.122s
7	LMP1	M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	5.754s
8	LMP1	N.Prost, N.Piquet Jr., N.Heidfeld	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	6.333s
9	LMP1	S.Trummer, O.Webb, J.Rossiter	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM/AER	7.778s
10	LMP2	R.Rusinov, N.Berthon, R.Rast	G-Drive Racing	ORECA/Nissan	11.570s
11	LMP2	G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	12.029s
12	LMP2	M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	12.243s
13	LMP2	S.Dolan, G.van der Garde, J.Dennis	G-Drive Racing	Gibson/Nissan	12.764s
14	LMP2	T.Graves, W.Stevens, J.Jakes	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	13.100s
15	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, F.Albuquerque, B.Senna	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier/Nissan	13.332s
16	LMP2	V.Petrov, K.Ladygin, V.Shaytar	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	13.652s
17	LMP2	R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	13.808s
18	LMP2	N.Minassian, M.Mediani, D.Markozov	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	13.832s
19	LMP2	D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	14.437s
20	LMP2	N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Gibson/Nissan	15.367s
21	LMP2	S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	17.915s
22	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, S.Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari	21.851s
23	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	22.168s
24	GTE Pro	R.Stanaway, F.Rees, J.Adam	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	22.194s
25	GTE Pro	B.Johnson, S.Mucke, O.Pla	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	22.587s
26	GTE Pro	M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	22.625s
27	GTE Pro	N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, D.Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	22.946s
28	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche	24.243s
29	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	24.558s
30	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	26.409s
31	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, D.Hansson, P.Long	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	26.422s
32	GTE Am	Y.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, P.Ruberti	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	26.923s
33	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker	Gulf Racing	Porsche	27.135s
34	GTE Am	C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias	KCMG	Porsche	27.523s