It was a welcome win for Stuttgart-based Porsche, reminiscent of Bahrain in 2017 when the team used their 919 LMP 1 Hybrid model to take the pole.
LUSAIL, Qatar—Porsche made a dramatic return to the World Endurance Championship Friday evening as Matt Campbell, in the sponsored Penske entry, clocked a 1:39:347 fastest lap to take the hyperbole event ahead of Nyck de Vries, who made up a disappointing season last year in Formula 1, driving now with Toyota Gazoo Racing, took second.
Campbell ended up beating de Vries by 0.164 seconds.
Finishing in third in the hypercar class was the Hertz JOTA Porsche, driven by Callum Ilott, who had been up near the front all week in both the prologue event and hyperbole. In fourth was the Ferrari 499P, with Antonio Fuoco, and another Penske entry finished in fifth, with Kevin Estre driving. The rest of the top ten had the two Peugeots in sixth and 10th, the sole Cadillac in seventh, the second Ferrari AF Corse in eighth, and the second Hertz JOTA Porsche ninth.
In the LMGT3 hyperpole event, TF Sport Corvette Racing’s Z06, driven by Tom van Rompuy, set the best time with a 1:54:372 ahead of the Manthey PureRxcing with Aliaksander Malykhin.
TF Sport already had 10 qualifying victories, but this is the first time the Corvette label has represented it. The Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296, driven by Thomas Flohr, took third, while the D’Station Aston Martin with Clement Mateu was fourth. The second Aston Martin, in the Vantage display, ended up fifth. The remaining LMGT3 top ten were the Iron Dames Lamborghini in sixth, with the two United Autosports McLarens in the next two spots in seventh and eighth. Team WRT BMW took ninth, and the Vista AF Corse Ferrari finished 10th.
The Qatar Airways 1812-kilometer event will occur on Saturday morning, starting at 11a and running until 9p.
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About Mark Gero
Mark began his addiction to Formula 1 racing watching races on the television at Watkins Glen and attending Grand Prix races in person at Long Beach, California in the 1970s and early 80s. Turning to the journalism side of motorsports in 2001, Mark started by writing Grand Prix weekend stories for San Diego, California based All-Sports under Jerry Preeper. He left one year later for E-Sports in Florida. Mark’s big break came when he wrote for the late Mike Hollander at Racing Services. Then, in 2010, he joined Racingnation for three seasons. For the remaining part of this decade, Mark continued to advance, writing articles for the Munich Eye Newspaper in Munich, Germany, and returning to the U.S. to finish his degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Ashford University. After graduating, Mark was hired by Autoweek before moving on to the racing website, Frontstretch, until late last year. Mark currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
