1812 km of Qatar: A qualification with two faces for Toyota

Standing back during the Free Practice sessions, Toyota regained the leading roles during qualifying for the 1812 km of Qatar and came close to pole position thanks to Nyck de Vries. The former pilot of Formula 1 was only beaten by Matt Campbell at the wheel of the Porsche 963 n°5.

« I think we're all a little surprised by our performance, believes the Dutchman. I'm very happy to be at the front during our first qualifying sessions of the season, especially after a difficult week for everyone during the Prologue and then the free practice sessions. The whole team has worked very hard to find improvements and now we have to put everything in place for the race. Ten hours is a long race, so we have to be clean in our execution, but it's good to start at the front. »

If the No. 7 will start from the first row this Saturday, the No. 8 had a more complicated day since Brendon Hartley failed to move into Hyperpole. “ I grained the tires on the left side in a few laps and was not able to achieve a representative lap time, explains the New Zealander. It was a little surprise. Unfortunately, we start 11th and we are missing a set of tires because they are completely destroyed. We need to analyze and understand what happened with our tires and why we couldn't have a good lap. Overall, it's positive from the team's point of view because Nyck did a great job. Second place was unexpected, but they really maximized the performance of the car. »

Meet at 11:00 a.m. (local time, 9:00 a.m. in France) this Saturday for the start of the 1812 km from Qatar.

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