Round5

6 Hours of Mexico

MEXICO CITY (MX)

Course: Autódromo
Hermanos
Rodríguez

Qualify

THIRD ROW IN MEXICO FOR TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will start the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) from the third row of the grid after qualifying for the 6 Hours of Mexico.

Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi qualified their #5 TS050 HYBRID in fifth position, one place ahead of the #6 of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.

The #6 car faced a challenging day of catch-up following an accident in Thursday testing which required a monocoque change. Having worked into the early hours of the morning, the mechanics had the car ready for the beginning of third practice.

There were issues for the #5 crew too on Thursday, with Anthony Davidson unable to participate as he concludes his recovery from bruised ribs, leaving Sébastien and Kazuki to share the driving for the remainder of the weekend.

In qualifying, Kazuki took the wheel first before handing over to Sébastien, with both drivers completing two flying laps, finishing 0.891secs behind the pole-position-winning Audi #8.

Mike and Kamui took qualifying duties in the sister car, with Mike only recording one flying lap while Kamui drove two. Unusually, Stéphane also took part, although he was not a nominated qualifier. He took the chance to get more experience of the circuit after the #6 missed both free practices on Thursday.

Despite a gap to Audi and Porsche over one lap today, TOYOTA hopes to be part of an exciting race on Saturday, when the threat of rain could be a factor.

TS050 HYBRID #5 (Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima)

Free practice 3: 6th (1min 26.788secs), 34 laps
Qualifying: 5th (1min 25.960secs average)

Sébastien Buemi

“It’s a small track with a lot of cars so it wasn’t easy with traffic. We could have been a bit quicker but not enough to fight for a better position. We are behind, we see that, but we are not miles behind; normally we have better pace in the race than in qualifying. It’s not going to be easy but we might have an opportunity. I am quite happy with how it went today and now we will work hard for a good result.”

Kazuki Nakajima

“I lost a bit of time in the last sector of my first lap so we need to look into what happened. Generally the car felt okay; it was just difficult to put everything together for one lap. We are ready for the race, which is going to be long and tricky in terms of the traffic, especially with the walls being quite close. We need to have a clean race as that can give us a chance. We will certainly keep fighting.”

TS050 HYBRID #6 (Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi)

Free practice 3: 5th (1min 26.448secs). 28 laps
Qualifying: 6th (1min 26.149secs average)

Stéphane Sarrazin

“I also drove in qualifying even though Mike and Kamui were the nominated qualifiers because I haven’t done so many laps here in Mexico. I could only do two laps this morning so I needed to get more experience on this track. I did another three laps which helps me as that’s almost double what I had done before.”

Mike Conway

“We have not done many laps this weekend in our car so it was a case of getting as much as we could out of qualifying. Maybe I could have gone quicker with another lap but it wouldn’t change much. We did okay considering what happened; big thanks to the crew who had a long, hard night to repair the car. I hope we can give them a reward in the race.”

Kamui Kobayashi

“I think we had difficult day yesterday but we managed to qualify relatively close to our sister car which is good. We started to get a better feeling for the car on this track. Obviously we didn’t have enough time to get a perfect set-up but I think we managed well in such a short time. Now we will see for tomorrow.”

QUALIFYING RESULTS -LMP CLASS

Pos N° Cat Driver Car T Laps Total Time Gap Gap Prev. Best lap Best time Best speed
1 1 LMP1 Timo BERNHARD, Mark WEBBER, Brendon HARTLEY Porsche 919 Hybrid M 29 - - 5 1:25.387 181.5
2 7 LMP1 Marcel FÄSSLER, André LOTTERER, Benoît TRÉLUYER Audi R18 M 32 +0.118 +0.118 7 1:25.505 181.2
3 8 LMP1 Lucas DI GRASSI, Loïc DUVAL, Oliver JARVIS Audi R18 M 37 +0.286 +0.168 16 1:25.673 180.9
4 2 LMP1 Romain DUMAS, Neel JANI, Marc LIEB Porsche 919 Hybrid M 30 +0.460 +0.174 10 1:25.847 180.5
5 6 LMP1 Stéphane SARRAZIN, Mike CONWAY, Kamui KOBAYASHI Toyota TS050 - Hybrid M 28 +1.061 +0.601 3 1:26.448 179.2
6 5 LMP1 Sébastien BUEMI, Kazuki NAKAJIMA, Toyota TS050 - Hybrid M 34 +1.401 +0.340 10 1:26.788 178.5
7 13 LMP1 Mathéo TUSCHER, Dominik KRAIHAMER, Alexandre IMPERATORI Rebellion R-One - AER D 18 +4.666 +3.265 14 1:30.053 172.1
8 4 LMP1 Simon TRUMMER, Oliver WEBB, Pierre KAFFER CLM P1/01 - AER D 26 +5.226 +0.560 17 1:30.613 171.0
9 26 LMP2 Roman RUSINOV, René RAST, Alex BRUNDLE Oreca 05 - Nissan D 33 +10.168 +4.942 13 1:35.555 162.2
10 36 LMP2 Gustavo MENEZES, Nicolas LAPIERRE, Stéphane RICHELMI Alpine A460 - Nissan D 30 +10.614 +0.446 8 1:36.001 161.4
11 42 LMP2 Nick LEVENTIS, Lewis WILLIAMSON, Jonny KANE Gibson 015S - Nissan D 30 +10.677 +0.063 10 1:36.064 161.3
12 41 LMP2 Roberto GONZALEZ, Bruno JUNQUEIRA, Luis DIAZ Gibson 015S - Nissan D 32 +10.697 +0.020 18 1:36.084 161.3
13 31 LMP2 Ryan DALZIEL, Luis Felipe DERANI, Christopher CUMMING LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan M 32 +10.812 +0.115 10 1:36.199 161.1
14 43 LMP2 Ricardo GONZALEZ, Filipe ALBUQUERQUE, Bruno SENNA LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan D 13 +10.846 +0.034 13 1:36.233 161.0
15 35 LMP2 David CHENG, Ho-Pin TUNG, Nelson PANCIATICI Alpine A460 - Nissan D 28 +11.060 +0.214 9 1:36.447 160.7
16 37 LMP2 Vitaly PETROV, Kirill LADYGIN, Victor SHAITAR BR01 - Nissan D 33 +11.145 +0.085 11 1:36.532 160.5
17 44 LMP2 Matthew RAO, Richard BRADLEY, Alfonso Diaz GUERRA Oreca 05 - Nissan D 33 +11.494 +0.349 27 1:36.881 159.9
18 27 LMP2 Nicolas MINASSIAN, Maurizio MEDIANI, BR01 - Nissan D 33 +11.575 +0.081 12 1:36.962 159.8
19 30 LMP2 Scott SHARP, Ed BROWN, Johannes VAN OVERBEEK LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan M 29 +11.821 +0.246 5 1:37.208 159.4
20 97 LMGTE Pro Richie STANAWAY, Darren TURNER, Aston Martin Vantage V8 D 29 +14.109 +2.288 23 1:39.496 155.7
21 95 LMGTE Pro Nicki THIIM, Marco SØRENSEN, Aston Martin Vantage V8 D 28 +14.185 +0.076 16 1:39.572 155.6
22 66 LMGTE Pro Stefan MÜCKE, Olivier PLA, Ford GT M 29 +15.105 +0.920 27 1:40.492 154.2
23 67 LMGTE Pro Marino FRANCHITTI, Andy PRIAULX, Harry TINCKNELL Ford GT M 29 +15.421 +0.316 23 1:40.808 153.7
24 77 LMGTE Pro Richard LIETZ, Michael CHRISTENSEN, Porsche 911 RSR (2016) M 29 +15.611 +0.190 3 1:40.998 153.4
25 71 LMGTE Pro Davide RIGON, Sam BIRD, Ferrari 488 GTE M 30 +15.905 +0.294 21 1:41.292 153.0
26 51 LMGTE Pro Gianmaria BRUNI, James CALADO, Ferrari 488 GTE M 31 +16.026 +0.121 10 1:41.413 152.8
27 88 LMGTE Am Khaled AL QUBAISI, David HEINEMEIER HANSSON, Patrick LONG Porsche 911 RSR M 31 +16.436 +0.410 5 1:41.823 152.2
28 98 LMGTE Am Paul DALLA LANA, Pedro LAMY, Mathias LAUDA Aston Martin Vantage V8 M 25 +16.845 +0.409 17 1:42.232 151.6
29 86 LMGTE Am Michael WAINWRIGHT, Adam CARROLL, Ben BARKER Porsche 911 RSR M 30 +16.950 +0.105 25 1:42.337 151.4
30 83 LMGTE Am François PERRODO, Emmanuel COLLARD, Rui AGUAS Ferrari F458 Italia M 17 +17.021 +0.071 12 1:42.408 151.3
31 50 LMGTE Am Yutaka YAMAGISHI, Pierre RAGUES, Ricky TAYLOR Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 M 30 +17.373 +0.352 11 1:42.760 150.8
32 78 LMGTE Am Christian RIED, Wolf HENZLER, Joël CAMATHIAS Porsche 911 RSR M 28 +18.051 +0.678 26 1:43.438 149.8

GET THE COMPLETE RACE RESULTS AND CHRONO

QUALIFYING RESULTS -LMGTE CLASS

Pos N° Cat Driver Car T Driver 1 Driver 2 Laps Average Gap
1 95 LMGTE Pro Nicki THIIM, Marco SØRENSEN, Aston Martin Vantage V8 D 1:40.208 1:40.708 2 1'40.458
2 97 LMGTE Pro Richie STANAWAY, Darren TURNER, Aston Martin Vantage V8 D 1:40.134 1:41.067 2 1'40.600 +0.142
3 51 LMGTE Pro Gianmaria BRUNI, James CALADO, Ferrari 488 GTE M 1:41.135 1:40.934 2 1'41.034 +0.576
4 77 LMGTE Pro Richard LIETZ, Michael CHRISTENSEN, Porsche 911 RSR (2016) M 1:41.164 1:41.480 2 1'41.322 +0.864
5 71 LMGTE Pro Davide RIGON, Sam BIRD, Ferrari 488 GTE M 1:41.298 1:41.554 2 1'41.426 +0.968
6 66 LMGTE Pro Stefan MÜCKE, Olivier PLA, Ford GT M 1:41.700 1:41.347 2 1'41.523 +1.065
7 67 LMGTE Pro Marino FRANCHITTI, Andy PRIAULX, Harry TINCKNELL Ford GT M 1:41.416 1:42.257 2 1'41.836 +1.378
8 88 LMGTE Am Khaled AL QUBAISI, David HEINEMEIER HANSSON, Patrick LONG Porsche 911 RSR M 1:42.142 1:43.537 2 1'42.839 +2.381
9 86 LMGTE Am Michael WAINWRIGHT, Adam CARROLL, Ben BARKER Porsche 911 RSR M 1:42.242 1:44.850 2 1'43.546 +3.088
10 78 LMGTE Am Christian RIED, Wolf HENZLER, Joël CAMATHIAS Porsche 911 RSR M 1:43.351 1:43.856 2 1'43.603 +3.145
11 50 LMGTE Am Yutaka YAMAGISHI, Pierre RAGUES, Ricky TAYLOR Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 M 1:42.984 1:44.493 2 1'43.738 +3.280
12 83 LMGTE Am François PERRODO, Emmanuel COLLARD, Rui AGUAS Ferrari F458 Italia M 1:43.253 1:44.508 2 1'43.880 +3.422
98 LMGTE Am Paul DALLA LANA, Pedro LAMY, Mathias LAUDA Aston Martin Vantage V8 M 1:42.009 1:42.865 2 1'42.437 +1.979

Free practice 3 results

Pos N° Cat Driver Car T Driver 1 Driver 2 Laps Average Gap
1 8 LMP1 Lucas DI GRASSI, Loïc DUVAL, Oliver JARVIS Audi R18 M 1:25.300 1:24.838 2 1'25.069
2 2 LMP1 Romain DUMAS, Neel JANI, Marc LIEB Porsche 919 Hybrid M 1:25.045 1:25.178 2 1'25.111 +0.042
3 7 LMP1 Marcel FÄSSLER, André LOTTERER, Audi R18 M 1:24.763 1:25.938 2 1'25.350 +0.281
4 1 LMP1 Timo BERNHARD, Mark WEBBER, Brendon HARTLEY Porsche 919 Hybrid M 1:25.384 1:25.417 2 1'25.400 +0.331
5 5 LMP1 Sébastien BUEMI, Kazuki NAKAJIMA, Toyota TS050 - Hybrid M 1:26.029 1:25.891 2 1'25.960 +0.891
6 6 LMP1 Stéphane SARRAZIN, Mike CONWAY, Kamui KOBAYASHI Toyota TS050 - Hybrid M 1:26.218 1:26.149 2 1'26.183 +1.114
7 13 LMP1 Mathéo TUSCHER, Dominik KRAIHAMER, Alexandre IMPERATORI Rebellion R-One - AER D 1:29.877 1:29.942 2 1'29.909 +4.840
8 4 LMP1 Simon TRUMMER, Oliver WEBB, Pierre KAFFER CLM P1/01 - AER D 1:30.891 1:32.458 2 1'31.674 +6.605
9 43 LMP2 Ricardo GONZALEZ, Filipe ALBUQUERQUE, Bruno SENNA LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan D 1:34.688 1:36.283 2 1'35.485 +10.416
10 36 LMP2 Gustavo MENEZES, Nicolas LAPIERRE, Stéphane RICHELMI Alpine A460 - Nissan D 1:35.684 1:35.955 2 1'35.819 +10.750
11 42 LMP2 Nick LEVENTIS, Lewis WILLIAMSON, Jonny KANE Gibson 015S - Nissan D 1:36.322 1:35.753 2 1'36.037 +10.968
12 26 LMP2 Roman RUSINOV, René RAST, Alex BRUNDLE Oreca 05 - Nissan D 1:36.671 1:35.456 2 1'36.063 +10.994
13 44 LMP2 Matthew RAO, Richard BRADLEY, Alfonso Diaz GUERRA Oreca 05 - Nissan D 1:36.089 1:37.100 2 1'36.594 +11.525
14 41 LMP2 Roberto GONZALEZ, Bruno JUNQUEIRA, Luis DIAZ Gibson 015S - Nissan D 1:36.166 1:37.663 2 1'36.914 +11.845
15 27 LMP2 Nicolas MINASSIAN, Maurizio MEDIANI, BR01 - Nissan D 1:37.231 1:36.974 2 1'37.102 +12.033
16 37 LMP2 Vitaly PETROV, Kirill LADYGIN, Victor SHAITAR BR01 - Nissan D 1:36.982 1:37.243 2 1'37.112 +12.043
17 35 LMP2 David CHENG, Ho-Pin TUNG, Nelson PANCIATICI Alpine A460 - Nissan D 1:38.477 1:36.488 2 1'37.482 +12.413
18 31 LMP2 Ryan DALZIEL, Luis Felipe DERANI, Christopher CUMMING LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan M 1:38.028 1:37.477 2 1'37.752 +12.683
19 30 LMP2 Scott SHARP, Ed BROWN, Johannes VAN OVERBEEK LIGIER JS P2 - Nissan M 1:37.498 1:41.530 2 1'39.514 +14.445

GET THE COMPLETE RACE RESULTS AND CHRONO