Gustavo Menezes and Bruno Senna have taken pole position for tomorrow's 4 Hours of Shanghai, giving Rebellion Racing their first pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Menezes opened with a 01:46:006 on his run, a time he wouldn't top again as he handed the #1 Rebellion R13-Gibson over to Bruno Senna. Senna then went even quicker, posting a 01:45:778 to bring the team average down to 01:45:892.
This was an untouchable time for the rest of the field, handing Rebellion their first pole and the first non-hybrid pole position since Sebring 2012.
Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson completed the front row in the #6 Team LNT Ginetta G60 LT-P1 – AER, putting in an average of 01:47:092 despite a spin for Simpson at the start of his run. Egor Orudzhev and Ben Hanley complete the top three in the #5 Ginetta, just 0.017s.
Toyota were on the back foot, hampered by a lack of pace and traffic out on track. The #7 TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway took fourth with a combined time of 01:47:235, while the #8 of Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley was considerably off the pace, over a second behind the pole time with an average of 01:48:180.
Cool Racing followed up their Silverstone debut victory with their first WEC pole position. Nicolas Lapierre went out first for a 01:48:089 before handing the #42 Cool Racing ORECA 07-Gibson to Antonin Borga, who brought the team's average to 01:48:649.
This was just over a tenth quicker than the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA in the hands of Will Stevens and Gabriel Aubry, while United Autosports will start third with their #22 ORECA.
Fuji race winners and championship leaders will likely have to start from the pit lane as Frits van Eerd failed to set a lap time to match Nyck de Vries' initial run, which left the Dutch squad last in the standings.
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