Porsche Penske Motorsport secured pole position for the 1,812km Qatar – the opening round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), which takes place this weekend at the Losail circuit.
The qualifying session determined the top ten for the Hyperpole – a new format for this year, which is applied in all rounds and not just the 24 Hours of Le Mans as before. In the Hypercar category, Matt Campbell put the #5 Porsche in front, being 0.413s faster than Nyck de Vries (Toyota #7). Porsche performed well, with the #12 Hertz Team JOTA in third place driven by rookie Callum Ilott. The last spot in the Hyperpole was secured by the other Porsche from the British team, the #38 with Jenson Button beating Brendon Hartley (Toyota #8) by just 17 milliseconds. Excluded were also, among others, the two BMWs from Team WRT, the two Alpines, and the only Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini.
In the Hyperpole, Campbell once again prevailed. He completed his last lap in 1m39.347s to beat de Vries by 0.164s – thus giving pole position to the #5 Porsche from Porsche Penske Motorsport. Ilott was again third, with Antonio Fuoco taking the Ferrari AF Corse #50 to fourth. Porsche Penske had their other car in fifth, confirming the superiority of the German cars in this Hyperpole. Peugeot will start in sixth with their best 9X8, thanks to Jean-Eric Vergne – ahead of the Cadillac #2 with Alex Lynn on board.
As for the LMGT3, Ian James took the Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin #27 to the top of the qualifying session – in which the last of the ten spots in the Hyperpole was secured by François Heriau’s lap in the Vista AF Corse Ferrari #55. Both Lexus cars were eliminated, as was the sole Ford. In the Hyperpole of the category, Tom van Rompuy set the pace, securing pole position for the TF Sport Corvette #81. He was 0.807s ahead of Aliaksandr Malykhin (Manthey PureRxcing/Porsche #92). Thomas Flohr placed the Vista AF Corse Ferrari #54 in third, with Clément Mateu fourth in the D’Station Racing Aston Martin #777. Results indicating a balanced competition among manufacturers, with four different ones in the top four positions.
Results:
