Matt Campbell took pole for the Qatar 1812km, the opening race of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, with the #5 Porsche 963 driver setting a 1:39.347. In LMGT3, TF Sport’s Tom van Rompuy, on his WEC debut, was quickest and claimed pole, setting a 1:55.251 onboard the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R. See below for a full qualifying report for both classes!
Q1 – LMGT3
In LMGT3, Tom van Rompuy in the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, set the early pace in the Q1 session, with a 1:55.634, with Thomas Flohr and Ian James second behind the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3.
However, #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3’s Clement Mateu then beat the Dutchman’s lap. Mateu didn’t stay top for long, however, with Alex Malykhin in the #92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3.R beating it, with a 1:55.611.
With just a couple of minutes left in the session, however, James was able to squeeze a little bit more out of Aston Martin, beating Malykhin by almost four tenths to end the session fastest. That’s quite a margin considering the next four cars are covered by less than a tenth!
The cars out in Q1 LMGT3 were:
P11 – Hiroshi Koizumi – #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R
P12 – Giorgio Roda – #88 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3
P13 – Yasser Shahin – #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3.R LMGT3
P14 – Darren Leung – #31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3
P15 – Arnold Robin – #78 ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3
P16 – Takeshi Kimura – #87 ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3
P17 – Claudio Schiavoni – #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2
P18 – 77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 in P18, Ryan Hardwick did not get out of the garage.
Q2 – Hypercar
Going into Q2, the two JOTA Porsches set the early pace, with Callum Ilott and Jenson Button 1-2 in the early minutes of the session. Another Porsche, the factory Penske-run #5 Porsche 963, however, took the took spot and was the first driver to go under 1:40, with a 1:39.757. Nyck de Vries, in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, went second a few tenths back, with Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot 9X8 fourth.
Ilott, in the #12 JOTA Porsche 963, then went faster than Campbell, but the Australian was on another fast lap, and duly smashed Ilott’s top time, going more than six tenths faster, with a 1:39.154 to top the session at the chequered flag.
Nyck de Vries went faster than his original time, and stayed second, but couldn’t beat Campbell, 0.413 back. Ilott was third a further tenth and a half off, with Vergne fourth and Antonio Fuoco, in the #50 Ferrari 963, fifth.
Out of the session, astoundingly, was the #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, just a few hundredths off Jenson Button in the #38 JOTA Porsche, who got through in 10th.
The rest of the nine cars who didn’t get through to Hypercar Hyperpole were:
P11 – Brendon Hartley – #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid
P12 – Yifei Ye – #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P
P13 – Julien Andlauer – #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963
P14 – Nico Lapierre – #36 Alpine A424
P15 – Raffaele Marciello – #15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8
P16 – Sheldon van der Linde – #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8
P17 – Paul Loup Chatin – #35 Alpine A424
P18 – Daniil Kvyat – Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63
P19 – Jean-Karl Vernay – Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH Competizione
Q3 – LMGT3 Hyperpole
While Ahmad Al Harthy was quickest early on in the Hyperpole session for the LMGT3 cars, he fell down the order as the session continued. Ian James took the took spot with four minutes to go, in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, but he was soon beaten by Tom Van Rompuy in the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, with a 1:54.883.
Thomas Flohr, behind the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari, was a few tenths off the Dutchman, but nobody could match Van Rompuy, even more so when the Corvette driver came through again to go over half a second quicker, eight tenths than the rest of the field.
Alex Malykhin took second over Flohr as the session came to end, with the #92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche driver still 0.807 off van Rompuy. Flohr was third, just 0.003 off Malykhin, while Clement Mateu, in the #777 D’Station Aston Martin, was fourth, a further two thousandths off Flohr. Fifth was the sister Aston Martin, Heart of Racing’s Ian James, in the #27 car.
Full LMGT3 qualifying results here.
Q4 – Hypercar Hyperpole
The first five minutes of the 10 minute Hyperpole sessions comprise tyre warm up for the drivers, as WEC does not use tyre warmers at all — the tyres are air temperature when the cars roll down the pit lane.
The times started coming down into representative times in the last five minutes of the session.
Duly, Nyck de Vries, onboard the #7 Toyota, set a 1:39.687 to go quickest. However, WEC newbie Callum Ilott, in the #12 JOTA Porsche, went just 0.002 faster to take the top spot, with Antonio Fuoco third in the #50 Ferrari.
However, Matt Campbell, in the #5 Porsche, came through to go quicker, a 1:39.557, pushing de Vries down to second. The Dutchman, on another quick lap, subsequently took the top spot again with a 1:39.511, while Ilott set a faster lap, a 1:39.622, but could not move up the timesheets, staying third at the flag.
With the flag waved it was now or never to set a fast lap and take pole. Campbell had started another quick lap and set a personal best in the first and second sector. He duly crossed the line to set a 1:39.347, 0.164 faster than de Vries in second and 0.275 than Ilott in third.
Fuoco was fourth for Ferrari, but the Italian manufacturer was never really in discussion for pole, 0.629 off Campbell. Campbell’s Porsche teammate, Kevin Estre, was fifth in the #6 Porsche, while Jean-Eric Vergne took sixth in the #93 Peugeot 9X8, 0.720 off.
Alex Lynn ended the session seventh in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, while the sister works #51 Ferrari, with Antonio Giovinazzi at the wheel, was eighth.
Ninth was Ilott’s JOTA teammate Jenson Button, in the #8 JOTA Porsche 963, just over a second off Campbell, while Stoffel Vandoorne rounded out the top ten in the #94 Peugeot.
Full Hypercar qualifying results here.
