Adam bags Bahrain WEC poleposted in WEC18 | 11 | 2016
FIFER JONNY ADAM will start tomorrow’a final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Six Hours of Bahrain, from pole position.
The Kirkcaldy racer, partnered by Darren Turner, qualified his #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE on the front row of the grid after both drivers set identical lap times of 1m56.953 in qualifying.
“It’s nice to be back here in Bahrain especially after doing my testing work with Dunlop last year,” Adam, who earlier this year sealed his second British GT Championship in an Aston Martin, said today.
“There were positive signs last year and its clear the tyre has improved drastically throughout 2016.
The car’s been getting better and better throughout the weekend and it was ultimately perfect in that session. The car feels really strong, particularly on the longer runs and we’ll be looking to fight for victory in Saturday’s race.”
The pair were soon followed by GTE Pro and GT Drivers championship leaders, Danish pair Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, who brought their #95 Aston Martin home with an average lap time of 1m57.081 to lock out the front row of the GTE Pro grid.
Aston Martin is in contention for all five GT championships on offer, including the overall GT Manufacturers title; the duo start just nine points behind the championship leaders.
In the Blue Riband LMP1 class, Audi claimed pole position for its farewell race in the WEC.
Brit Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi took pole in the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (above) by two-and-a-half tenths from the #1 Porsche qualified by Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
The pole-winning car's average of 1m39.207s compared with the Porsche's 1m39.471s.
Related: Aston Martin unveils new Vanquish S
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Jim McGill