Toyota locks out WEC Silverstone front row

Toyota Gazoo Racing has locked out the front row for tomorrow's Six Hours of Silverstone. Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi combined for an impressive 1m37.304 average in qualifying in the No. 7 TS050 to take pole, following a last-gasp 1m37.8s flying lap at the end of the session by home favorite Conway to bump the car to the top spot.

"Toyota has clearly delivered a good car for this season," Kobayashi said. "The team has worked so hard to prepare us for this important opening race."

• Results

The No. 8 TS050 meanwhile ended up just 0.289s behind the sister car by the end of the session, after Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima's laps behind the wheel in LMP qualifying. It marks Toyota's first 1-2 start for a WEC race since the 2013 6 Hours of Bahrain.

#6hSilverstoneQualifying HighlightPole teamsLMP1@Toyota_HybridLMP2@GDrive_RacingGTE-Pro@FordPerformanceGTE-Am@AMR_Officialpic.twitter.com/OzTNp8TPjN— FIA WEC (@FIAWEC)April 15, 2017

Behind, the two Porsches ended up third and fourth, both over a second off the pole time. The No. 1 919 of Nick Tandy, Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer will start third, with the sister No. 2 completing the second row. The two Hybrid prototypes were clearly off the pace as a result of the team's decision to run its Le Mans-spec aero kits in the opening round.

In LMP2, Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet steered G-Drive Racing to class Pole with a 1m44.387s average, the pair both setting stellar lap times. The Signatech Alpine ended up just four-hundreths off the best time in second, with Nicolas Lapierre and Matt Rao combining for the reigning champion's average. The No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca will line up for the race third in class, with the two Vailiante Rebellion Orecas making up the two remaining top-five spots.

GTE Pro saw Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx combine for pole in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi UK GT, with a 1m59.202 average, giving the pair the top spot for their home race.

"It was a great showing for the team," said Priaulx. "We didn't expect to be quite as competitive here, but in the end we worked hardboth managed great laps and therefore took the surprise pole."

Behind, after a quiet run through the three practice sessions, AF Corse's No. 71 Ferrari 488 GTE of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon ended up P2, just under a second off the polesitters. Third meanwhile was taken by 2016 FIA WEC GTE Pro champions Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen in the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage, making it three manufacturers in the top three.

Aston Martin Racing had good fortunes in GTE Am too, after Canadian Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy set an average lap time of 1m59.562 to put the No. 98 Vantage on pole in the other GTE division.

Tomorrow's Six Hours of Silverstone, the opening round of the 2016 FIA WEC season, is set to begin at 12:00pm local time in the UK.