FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Sao Paulo - LMP Qualifying

Both Audis take to the track immediately as the 20 minute session goes green, Lucas di Grassi is at the wheel of the #2 R18 ultra, Andre Lotterer again at the wheel of the #1 e-tron Quattro.

Di Grassi is having the best of the first flier in the first two sectors and grabs provisional pole with a 1:23.324, a full 1.6 seconds up on the hybrid.

Watts splits the Audis with his first flier (1:24.181) but both R18s are improving this time around, di Grassi posts a 1:23.147 to up the ante – Lotterer a 1:23.740 closes the gap and with a poor third sector from the Brazilian next time around, closes it even further with a 1:23.389 on his third flier.

Liuzzi meanwhile grabs provisional pole in LMP2 from Matthieu Lahaye – 1:27.804, 2 tenths up on the Morgan Nissan.

Watts shaves a tenth off his best to a 1:24.1, Lotterer doing the same to close the gap again to di Grassi, now in the pits and out of the #2 car..  Lotterer aborting his next lap and pitting too with the gap under two tenths.

Franck Mailleux meanwhile had grabbed second in LMP2 but Liuzzi has bettered his time to a 1:27.440 in the meantime.

Andrea Belicchi and Peter Dumbreck were by now having a crack at matching Danny Watts’ mark, their first fliers three and five tenths respectively short of the Strakka time.

7 minutes to go and finally the Toyota is fired up in pitlane – Alex Wurz cruising out to shoot for pole.

6 minutes to go and Neel Jani grabbed third, ahead of Watts, in the #12 rebellion Lola Toyota with a 1:23.9.

Sarrazin meanwhile had moved ahead of Liuzzi, the Starworks HPD posting a 1:27.048 with Baguette going third fastsat in P2 for Oak’s #35 Morgan Nissan.

Nelson Panciatici went second in P2 with a 1:27.7 before John Martin leapfrogged the #26 Oreca Nissan in his #25 ADR Delta version – 1:27.163.

Wurz though was storming around and the Austrian scored a provisional pole setting lap at his first attempt, 1:22.871and then a 1:22.364 – Audi have no answer to that one – Toyota take their first pole position with the TS030 – A fabulous effort.

A convincing margin for Toyota then but the 4 petrol privateers are split by less than 4 tenths of a second.

In LMP2 the top three are separated by just over a tenth - This could be a VERY good race!