Kévin Estre (Porsche): “The worst qualifying of my career”

"It's the worst qualifying of my career, or at least of my career in WEC », this is the judgment of Kévin Estre on his performance in qualifying at Fuji, to our microphone. While the Porsche No. 6 triumphed at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin in the last round, the reigning world champion car will have to start from the back row of the Hypercar grid, having only beaten the Proton Competition customer Porsche 963.

A poor performance that was all the more problematic for the French driver as his teammate Julien Andlauer managed to put the other Porsche Penske Motorsport machine in Hyperpole, ultimately securing seventh position on the starting grid for the race, which will start at 4 a.m. French time tonight.

“The car is a bit lacking, I didn't drive very well, it went rather badly. I think we didn't put together a good sequence, attacking one lap, then slowing down and trying to attack again. The grip never came back. When I look at Julien's (Andlauer) session, he was able to attack three laps in a row and improve with each lap. That's probably what he should have done, but it's easy to say that afterwards. He maximized what was in the car, and I was far from that, for lots of little reasons. There are no problems with the car, but I'm not happy with the balance, and I didn't drive well. That, plus that, plus that... it means we're starting very far behind.”

In an increasingly competitive championship, with three different brands on the first two lines of the grid (Cadillac, Aston Martin et Peugeot ), it's hard to imagine the No. 6 Porsche picking up many points at Fuji Speedway. The No. 6 Porsche 963 won last year after a particularly eventful race. Kévin Estre is hoping for the same scenario to move up the rankings with his teammate Laurens Vanthoor.

"We're going to try to score some big points, we've seen in the past that it's possible. It's a 6-hour race, it's not a sprint race, so there are chances to come back. It's definitely going to be very tough, it's going to depend on the events of the race, on a lot of things. If we rely only on ourselves, we're not going to be able to get into the top 5 in such a close race. With the top speed we've had lately compared to some cars, it's going to be difficult to overtake, but hey. Laurens has already managed to get some good starts in the past, especially at Fuji, so I hope we'll manage to get through the pitfalls. Last year we saw seven or eight cars involved in an incident at the first corner of the second lap, so a lot can happen. We're going to need safety cars, a good strategy and a perfect race to score some big points."

With the help of the rain? "It would be good, it would definitely help us. We saw in Austin that we're very good in the rain, and that it's easier to overtake and make gaps. It doesn't seem to be going in that direction, the risk of rain is getting lower and lower, so I think it might be difficult. There are six hours left in front of us, I think we've proven in many races that we're capable of doing great things with the #6 Porsche in the race, so we'll have to put all that together tomorrow, and we'll see."

Interview by Valentin Glo, in Fuji (Japan).

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