Le Mans – Neel Jani: “It wasn’t the maximum”

With a reference time established in 3'16″887, Neel Jani and Porsche 919 Hybrid n°18 set the pace yesterday during of the first qualifying practices for the 24 2015 Hours of Le Mans. A best time which, in addition to improving last year's pole position by almost five seconds Kazuki Nakajima, establishes a new qualifying record on the 13,629 km track, previously held by Peugeot and Stéphane Sarrazin since 2008 in 3'18″513.

However, the Swiss driver estimated, after the two hours of driving at night in Sarthe, that he could do even better, on a track which could improve after the delicate weather conditions yesterday at Le Mans, between alternating showers and clearings. . “My initial round was good, but not perfect, because it wasn't completely clear. For it to be the best lap of the day and a qualifying record is very pleasing. But I know it wasn't the maximum, and we have to wait and see what happens in the other qualifying sessions. »

Porsche also achieved the hat-trick on Wednesday, with the #919 and #17 19s following the leading #18 in grouped order. “The conditions were not easy today, admits Andreas Siedl, Porsche Team Principal. But, despite a few showers during free practice, we managed to complete our program.

Today the focus was on race preparation. The cars moved smoothly and the team did an excellent job. Especially for cars 17 and 18, the interaction between drivers and engineers is very good regarding the positioning of the cars in traffic. I am also very happy with the performance of our new drivers: they were on equal footing with our more experienced drivers. »

Porsche will try to maintain its provisional best time this Thursday, with the day's qualifying sessions starting at 19 p.m., and which will be followed live and in full on AUTOhebdo.fr.

Find all our photos of 24 Hours of Le Mans on our gallery and best-of video of the first qualifying session.