After the stifling heat of Texas, place to the heavy rain of Japan. After experiencing complicated free practice with destabilizing weather conditions, the team took the start of the qualifying session very seriously. Initially pushed back, then advanced to avoid the maximum rainfall, this qualifying session started at 2:25 pm (local time).
Brazilian drivers Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr first started on the Fuji Speedway track. After high-quality laps, Julien Canal and David Heinemeier Hansson took over with the utmost seriousness.
At the end of the session the Oreca 07 #13 ends up P1, followed by the sister car #31. The Jackie Chan DC Racing #38 and Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 are P3 and P4. Hopefully this will once again be the show of this seventh race of the FIA WEC season! Hopefully this will announce a lot of show for this seventh race of the FIA WEC season!
Bart Hayden, team manager:
“The Vaillante REBELLION drivers all delivered fantastic laps in today’s tricky qualifying session. Fine rain was falling and the track was wet. Some cars went on intermediate tyres, others went on wet, it was hard to know which way was the right way. The engineers from both cars had developed the set-ups on the cars for the wet conditions throughout the weekend, so it’s great to see that hard work being rewarded by securing the front row of the LMP2 grid in the qualifying session. Special congratulations need to go to the drivers of car #13, both Nelson and David put in mega laps to get the pole position. The weather forecast for tomorrow’s race looks very wet, so starting from the front row is even more important than usual.”
David Heinemeier Hansson, #13 driver:
“I knew we had a quick car when I saw Nelson’s times on the board, but I immediately feared that the worsening conditions would do me in. There was so much rain on my windscreen when I went out, so didn’t think the inters would hold. But by my second flying lap, I knew we had a great car that had a chance to take pole. By the third flier, it just felt amazing. The car was dancing on the limit but it was forgiving and very quick. Overall it was amazing to take my first pole ever in LMP2 WEC and to do so by such a big margin is just a cherry on top.”
Nelson Piquet Jr, #13 driver:
“The qualifying session was tricky. The weather was not very clear and the track was wet. We had some hesitations according to it but it all worked out. We did an amazing job. We did two good laps together and it was enough to get pole position.”
Bruno Senna, #31 driver:
“Qualifying was a bit frustrating for us. I didn’t quite hook my lap all together, but it we had a good shot at fighting for P1. Unfortunately our sister car was released from the pits in front of us when Julien in the car and we lost any chance to get a competitive lap with their traffic.”