Tandy, Jani steer Porsche to Lone Star Le Mans pole

Neel Jani and Nick Tandy stormed to pole position for the 2017 Lone Star Le Mans, with a 1m44.741s average in the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, after a dramatic ending to qualifying which saw Nick Tandy catapult the car to the top spot from fourth on his final flying lap.

Jani initially put the car on provisional pole, but when Tandy got in, his first flying lap which would have sealed the deal was deleted for track limits, forcing the Briton to go back out at the end and have another go. He was able to set another blistering lap on old tires though (1m45.827s), earning Porsche LMP Team its third pole of 2017.

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"It was a little close at the end because his lap got deleted and he had to go out again on a used set," a jubilant Jani said after the session. "But he went out and took our second pole of the year. it looks like we have an advantage over Toyota here in Austin, we're hoping it stays hot."

Behind, the No. 2 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard ended up second, after the duo set a 1m44.994s to give the German marque a front-row lockout. The best of the Toyotas – the No. 8 TS050 HYBRID – ended up 1.6 seconds off the pole time in third, with the sister No. 7 ending up last in the class.

LMP2 saw Signatech Alpine take the honors as Andre Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre teamed up to set the best average in the eight-car category with a 1m54.024s driving the No. 36 A470 Gibson. It was a similar story to LMP1, with Lapierre getting his best flying lap deleted. Luckily, his second-best time was good enough to keep the car on pole to the flag.

"Today Nico did a big job for the team, I got a perfect lap, I have to say thank you to him for the great lap he did," Negrao said. "Tomorrow should be a tough race, hot all race. It will be hard to keep the average up each lap."

The second car on the front row was the No. 13 Vaillante Rebellion, which stayed second on the timing screens throughout. David Heinemeier Hansson and Mathias Beche shared the team's ORECA for the session and finished with a 1m54.275s combined time.

Behind, the championship-leading No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing 07 Gibson will start tomorrow's race from third with a 1m54.394s time, while the second of the Rebellion ORECAs eventually ended up taking fourth after sitting on provisional pole early in the session.

Only seven of the eight LMP2 runners recorded times; the No. 25 Manor ORECA was unable to set a single flying lap due to an electrical fault. The car briefly went out in the session with Vitaly Petrov at the wheel before the Russian returned the car to its garage for repairs after his out lap.

In GTE Pro, Davide Rigon and Sam Bird combined to set a stellar 2m03.057s and score their third pole of the season. The average was achieved by a 2m02.993s from the Italian and a 2m03.122s from the Briton, all on a single set of tires in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.

"It was a combination of great work between Davide and myself," Bird said. "Note we did it on one set of tires, and really happy. I used Davide's tires, I knew it would be tough, but it might be my best lap of the year. I'm delighted for the team."

Second fastest was the No. 67 Ford, as Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell's laps ended up just a fraction under two tenths off the pole-sitting car with an average of 2m03.256s.

Slotting in third was the No 95 Aston Martin, making it three marques in top three. Marco Sorensen climbed in first, before Nicki Thiim late in the session set a 2m03.412s to vault the car into third.

Completing the top five in the class was the No. 51 AF Corse 488 after a recovery from Alessandro Pier Guidi who had a slow opening lap, and No. 66 Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT. It was a tougher session for Porsche, its 911 RSRs qualifying seventh and eighth.

Aston Martin Racing took its fifth pole position of 2017 in GTE Am, Pedro Lamy and Canadian Paul Dalla Lana combining to create an average time of 2m06.031s in what was a very spread out qualifying for the five runners in the Pro/Am GTE division.

"It was nice the car is working really well here," said Lamy. "The tires fit well with the hot weather, hopefully we can have a good race."

Over a second back and completing the first row was the Spirit of Race Ferrari of Thomas Flohr and Miguel Molina, the duo setting a 2m07.203s.

Third was the Clearwater Racing Ferrari, Mok Weng Sun setting the first laps on fresh rubber, before Matt Griffin climbed in and moved the car from last, up to third with a late 2m05.951s. Despite his best efforts to move the car even further up the grid on his final flying lap, the Irishman had to settle for third spot.

The championship-leading Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR will start fourth.

Tomorrow's Lone Star Le Mans 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas, is set to start at 1 p.m. ET/noon local time in Austin, Texas.