Third, Sørensen aims for the podium for Aston Martin or even better at Fuji

The green machines were in contention for a podium finish in Austin before faltering in the final hour. As they prepare for the 6 Hours of Fuji, Aston Martin once again displays a conquering face, as proven by Marco Sørensen, author of the best time in qualifying and then the third best time in Hyperpole, at the wheel of the Valkyrie bearing the number 009.

The Danish driver, however, did not expect to lead the way after the twelve-minute qualifying session reserved for all Hypercars, despite the very convincing pace set by Aston Martin since the start of the weekend. The Valkyrie even had the luxury of leading Free Practice 3, just a few hours before qualifying...

"Honestly, I took to the track without expecting anything other than to attack, very, very hard, as always in qualifying.", Sørenson told us. “When we finished first in qualifying, I started to think there might be a chance of going for pole! It’s a great result for the whole team. Finishing third in Hyperpole is still a great result, our best of the year. We can’t complain!”

The British brand's driver also explained that he had to modify his settings just before the qualifying session, which is never ideal: “There was maybe a bit more to go, maybe I didn't get everything I could out of the car. The balance was a bit different, we had to change some settings for qualifying because we were going in the wrong direction. It was a bit of a blind session for me because I had to figure out how the car behaved in qualifying, which is never ideal. It gives a bit of a bigger challenge, which is nice.”

As the Valkyrie plays its seventh round in WEC, Sørensen loudly affirms the team's ambitions, which are quite simply to get on the podium, or even better? “The goal is a podium, that's what we're aiming for. The goal is also to have a clean race, that's extremely important in the WEC. You can't afford to have punctures or that kind of thing. The main thing for us is to have a clean race, and if we have the pace we'll aim for the win, if we can. It's a bit funny to say that now because we were at the back of the field for several races. We'll see what Sunday brings, to see if we have the pace we expect to have.”

Tincknell did not 'get the most out of the car'

In the other Valkyrie, Harry Tincknell was only able to achieve the eleventh fastest time. This left the British driver slightly disappointed with his own performance, but just as delighted as his teammate with the progress made by Aston Martin, which he hopes to translate into a race this time, unlike Austin.

“I didn't get the most out of the car this Saturday, but it's a long race ahead of us. The race pace looks promising, and the main thing is that the other car did a phenomenal job for Aston Martin with third place. He was fastest in the first qualifying session, which makes two separate sessions (with FP3) where we were fastest. As we've been saying for the last four or five races, we make progress every time and that's the main thing. We did it again here and I hope we can get a result that will make us proud.”

Comments by Marco Sørensen collected by Valentin Glo, in Fuji (Japan).

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