The 1m 45.892s average time of drivers Bruno Senna and Gustavo Menezes was enough to give Rebellion Racing the first ever non-hybrid pole in WEC at this weekends Shanghai 4h.
Since the series inception in 2012, only hybrid powered machinery has claimed pole, and this is the first time since the end of the 2017 season that a Toyota will not start from top spot.
Over a second back were the two Ginettas, with the #6 bagging a spot on the front row thanks to Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson’s efforts. The #5 car of Egor Orudzhev and Ben Hanley will line up third, a mere 0.017s slower than the sister car.
Toyota #7 was the fastest hybrid, in fourth place, with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi some 1.3s off the pole. Sebastian Buemi and Brendon Hartley’s #8 TS050 will bring up the rear of the LMP1 field, and a staggering 0.5s faster than Cool Racing’s Oreca which scored pole in the LMP2 class.
The new success ballast measures look to have taken full swing at Shanghai, with the LMP1 field looking to be the most competitive in recent times.
