Varrone “Over the Moon” With COTA Qualifying Showing

Nico Varrone was “over the moon” after his strong qualifying performance at Circuit of The Americas, leading the first session aboard his Proton Competition Porsche 963 before securing sixth on the grid for Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans.

The Argentinean pulled off an upset when he posted the fastest time during the opening qualifying session on Saturday, mastering the damp conditions to reel off a 1:58.155 aboard the privately entered No. 99 Porsche.

That marked the first time this season that Proton made it through into Hyperpole, with Varrone’s subsequent sixth place in the top-ten shootout the team’s best qualifying result since last year’s Bahrain season finale.

“Absolutely amazing,” Varrone told Sportscar365. “I just can’t believe it. Qualifying with these changing conditions, obviously it was something unexpected, right?

“Because in Free Practice we were okay, but we always looked to be mid-pack or even worse.

“And this rain, we said, ‘Okay, maybe it changes something,’ but we didn’t expect it to be so much.

“I just went out and I don’t know, I just found grip somewhere and somehow and managed to do a good lap and go P1, which was great.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’m still over the moon. I’m so happy for the team, for all the people that support me. It’s something great.”

Varrone admitted he likely could have scored a better Hyperpole result had it not been for a mistake during a flying lap.

“Hyperpole, it was already the goal to be there this season and I feel like we were in a really good spot,” he said.

“I was coming for a lap but as I was one of the last ones, it started to rain. On the last corner, I went wide, same as one of the Penskes I had in front. I think it was Kevin [Estre].

“I lost one second there because I went wide and that ruined my qualifying. I don’t want to say it would have been for pole, but second for sure.

“It is what it is, but sixth, I would take that. It’s great.”

Varrone described finding improvements in the damp conditions during Saturday’s qualifying as a “matter of confidence” searching for more pace on each lap.

“Every time you passed every lap, you just tried to push a bit more and understand where it was a bit more wet or not,” he said.

“So that’s how I did it. I tried to understand where it was wet and where it was not, and tried to think that every lap would improve because of all the cars running.

“I tried to improve little bits in every sector without making mistakes because it was really easy to make mistake, to go wide or to lock up. I was lucky to not have it.

“[I was] trying to find the rhythm by lap-by-lap.”