Toyota locks out front row for Silverstone WEC opener

Toyota Gazoo Racing locked out the front row of the grid for the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season at Silverstone on Saturday as Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi teamed up to secure pole position.

Conway and Kobayashi set a combined average lap time of 1m36.015s in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to take pole by three-tenths of a second from Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the sister #8 car.

But Toyota's second-plus advantage over the privateer LMP1 teams seen through much of last season was cut significantly as Rebellion Racing's #1 R13 Gibson finished just half a second shy of pole in third, with the second Rebellion car taking fourth.

New entrant Team LNT qualified fifth and sixth with its pair of Ginetta LMP1 cars, both lapping within half a second of the pole time.

Racing Team Nederland claimed pole in LMP2 ahead of United Autosports and Jackie Chan DC Racing, while AF Corse took a one-two in GTE-Pro led by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

TF Sport scored pole in GTE-Am with the #90 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, with Team Project 1 and Aston Martin Racing following in P2 and P3.