After three consecutive pole positions for their sister No.18 Porsche, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard and struck back to score the pole at Fuji Speedway in the latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Japan.

Today’s result was their third pole of the season after scoring the top spot in the opening two rounds at Silverstone and Spa.

Qualifying was held in cloudy but dry conditions with Bernhard and Webber set a combined average of 1m22.763s to head their pursuers. Webber’s best was the fastest LMP1 lap ever recorded at Fuji – 1m22.639s.

The duo will pair with New Zealander Brendon Hartley in the race tomorrow. The trio have combined to win the past two rounds of the championship at the Nurburgring and Circuit of The Americas.

“I think last year it was early days for the team and the regulations were very open which is great for the championship,” Webber said.

“It is what the manufacturers are looking for – an opportunity to develop their technology and their products and not have hand cuffs on.

“You can develop very aggressively and Porsche has done an incredible job in the past 12 months. Pace-wise it is a big step. The race record last year was a 1:27.2 so that is going to be destroyed tomorrow.

“Things move fast. It is a credit to the team and the whole organization that we managed to find the performance and lift the bar.

“That puts the pressure on Audi obviously. They had it good for a long time and it is a great challenge. We respect them but we need to be pressure on them as quickly as possible.”

Porsche locked in a 1-2 result with the No.18 car stealing a spot on the front row on the final lap.

Daniel Abt and Alexander Imperatori won the in-house Rebellion Racing battle this time, as they claimed the LMP1 privateer pole in the No.13 Rebellion R-One AER.

G-Drive Racing was celebrating a fine 1-2 qualifying effort with the No.26 Ligier-Nissan driven by Sam Bird and Julien Canal sealing a second consecutive pole and a third in total so far in 2015.

A dramatic 20 minute qualifying session for LMGTE ended with a jump for joy by Davide Rigon and James Calado in the AF Corse garage as the Anglo-Italian pairing claimed their first WEC Pole Position.

There were initial smiles in the Larbre Competition garage as Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti took their first LMGTE Am pole in 2015 and the first for the team since 2012. However, the Corvette was found to have a fuel cell infraction in post-qualifying tech inspection and has been put to the back of the grid.

The championship-leading No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari F458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar will now start at the front of the AM pack.

#Porsche 919 Hybrid remains unbeaten in qualifying @FIAWEC in #FUJI6h. More: //t.co/o4xlS8zDDw pic.twitter.com/ZOXTzybsTx

— Porsche Newsroom (@PorscheNewsroom) October 10, 2015

6th @FIAWEC round in 2015, 6th all #porsche919hybrid first row on the grid – @Porsche Team LMP1 is happy. pic.twitter.com/mrsqq4QpRp

— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) October 10, 2015

.@FIAWEC #6HFuji First pole position for @JamesCalado and @rigondavide! Congratulations guys! pic.twitter.com/n79Dow9LyU

— Ferrari Races (@FerrariRaces) October 10, 2015