Kevin Estre said there was no chance of Porsche beating Ferrari in qualifying for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Imola, the Frenchman said after qualifying.
‘No,” said the #6 Porsche 963 driver when asked if they could have beaten Ferrari.
“That was all we had. There was maybe a chance to be P3, because this is 0.150 tenths away or so, but P1? No chance.”
Although he qualified P4, over sixth off polesitter Antonio Fuoco, Estre said he was happy with his lap.
“But I have to say after qualifying, I was quite quite pleased with the way the car behaved and I think our race prep has been has been pretty good as well. So, we’ll see.”
And when asked about Porsche’s race pace compared to the one lap pace, Estre sounded optimistic.
“Yeah, I think we are a bit closer, but in the end, in practice you never know what what sort of tires or fuel the other cars have.
So we’ll see, but I I think six seven tens is not what’s gonna be the difference in in the race. Hopefully, otherwise it’s going to be very long race!”, he said, with a smile on his face.
While Estre didn’t know where exactly the pace was lacking compared to Ferrari, he believed Porsche were using enough of the kerbs — somewhere Ferrari are strong, and essential to a quick lap around Imola.
“Yeah, I think they’re always quite aggressive on kerbs, generally. But we made a car for this weekend, where it’s possible to go on the kerbs. Otherwise, you can’t drive around Imola, so I think we made the best we had.
“But in the end, it’s a one lap thing. Ferrari seems to be very strong in some tracks, like we’ve seen on the race ;ace, but they definitely look very strong overall,” concluded the Porsche factory driver.
