1812 km of Qatar: Matt Campbell places Porsche in pole position

The 1812 km of Qatar inaugurated the new qualifying formula for this 2024 season: that of the Hyperpole. As with 24 Hours of Le Mans, the top ten in each category now qualify for a second session, the latter defining pole position. With 19 cars, the battle promised to be intense to reach the next stage.

The Alpine eliminated in Q1, a Toyota on the carpet

Without surprise, nor Alpine, neither BMW, nor Lamborghini, nor Isotta Fraschini managed to pass Q1. The two LMDh tricolors will start from 14th and 17th places. More surprising, the early eliminations of the Toyota n ° 8 of Brendon Hartley and Ferrari No. 83 by Yifei Ye, only 11th and 12th. Julien Andlauer failed to place the Porsche 963 from Proton Competition in the top 10 with 13th place. Both Peugeot confirmed their good form on the Losail route by placing themselves in Hyperpole.

Matt Campbell defeats Nyck de Vries

Pole position was decided between Matt Campbell (Porsche Penske Motorsport) and Nyck de Vries (Toyota Gazoo Racing). The two men took turns at the top of the timesheet and it was ultimately the Australian who took the upper hand with a best lap of 1:39.347. The winner of this year's 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Bathurst beat the Dutchman by just 0.164 seconds. Callum Ilott completed the podium in the No. 963 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 12.

The first Ferrari finished just off the podium with the #50 driven by Antonio Fuoco, more than half a second off the best time. Kévin Estre took 5th place at the wheel of the second official Porsche. As for Peuugeot, it was a good sixth place for Jean-Eric Vergne at the wheel of the No. 93, ahead of Alex Lynn (Cadillac) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari). Stoffel Vandoorne (Peugeot) completed the top 10 behind Jenson Button (Hertz Team JOTA).

The start of the 1812 km of Qatar will be given this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. local time, 9:00 a.m. in France.

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