Audi swept to a one-two finish in Friday's qualifying session for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin.
Audi arrived at COTA licking the wounds from its defeat in Mexico two weeks ago, but managed to bounce back in impressive fashion by leaving Porsche trailing in its wake.
The no. 7 Audi R18 shared by Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer in qualifying swept to pole despite having one of its laps scratched for using too much fuel. Fassler's lost effort was made up for by Lotterer, who turned in a fastest time of 1:45.703 to give the pair an average of 1:45.750 come the end of the session.
Fassler, Lotterer and the returning Benoit Treluyer will be joined on the front row by the sister no. 8 Audi R18, shared in qualifying by Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis as they finished two-tenths of a second further back.
Porsche rolled the dice by switching tyres mid-way through the session, but was unable to match the pace of the Audis which completed the running on a single set. The no. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley was third, eight-tenths off the pole time, while Toyota impressed to split the Porsches with it no. 6 TS050 Hybrid sitting fourth.
LMP2 pole went to the Signatech Alpine squad as Gustavo Menezes and Nicolas Lapierre finished almost a second clear of the pack, aided by the exclusion of rivals G-Drive for a series of track limits violations.
Aston Martin Racing did not falter despite being hit with a balance of performance penalty for COTA as its no. 95 Vantage V8 shared by Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen grabbed pole in GTE Pro, defeating the no. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE by just 0.042 seconds. Ford finished third in qualifying with its no. 66 entry.
Aston Martin also picked up pole in GTE Am, the no. 98 entry shared by Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy in qualifying as they went six-tenths of a second clear of the no. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing entry.
