Campbell Takes Porsche Penske’s Maiden WEC Pole

Matt Campbell secured Porsche Penske Motorsport’s first pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship by edging out Toyota driver Nyck de Vries in a Hyperpole duel ahead of Saturday’s season-opening Qatar 1812km.

The Australian driver steered the No. 5 Porsche 963 to a best lap of 1:39.347, beating De Vries’ No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid by 0.164 seconds.

The two drivers traded the top time back and forth at the conclusion of a tense Hyperpole session, which forms part of a revised qualifying format introduced for this season.

Under the new system, which has seen running split up into two sessions, the top ten cars in initial qualifying advanced into Hyperpole while the remaining runners had their grid positions decided after their elimination.

Toyota was one car down in Hyperpole after a late flying lap from Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R dropped the No. 8 car of Brendon Hartley out of the top ten.

Both Alpines, the two BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 and the No. 99 Proton Porsche were some of the other cars that failed to reach Hyperpole.

As the deciding session played out, De Vries came close to beating Porsche and appeared to be en route to provisional pole by posting a 1:39.511 lap time.

Campbell then responded with a last-gasp improvement that gave Porsche its first overall pole position of WEC’s Hypercar era. It also marks the first time an LMDh car led qualifying in WEC since the platform joined the championship last year.

Callum Ilott completed the overall top three aboard the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche, ahead of Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 Ferrari 499P.

Kevin Estre slotted into fifth aboard the No. 6 car, leading the quickest of the Peugeot 9X8s with Jean-Eric Vergne in sixth overall.

Lynn qualified seventh behind the wheel of the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R, with Antonio Giovinazzi eighth in the No. 51 Ferrari.

Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne rounded out the top ten for JOTA and Peugeot, respectively.

Of note, a number of significant cars, including both JOTA Porsches and the two factory-entered AF Corse Ferraris are under investigation for a potential breach of refueling procedures.

TF Sport’s Van Rompuy Takes First Pole of LMGT3 Era

Tom van Rompuy delivered the first pole position of the LMGT3 era by topping qualifying aboard the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The Belgian reeled off a lap of 1:54.372 to beat the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alex Malykhin by 0.807 seconds.

It marked the first pole position for Corvette’s new-for-2024 GT3 challenger in only its second race, having debuted in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

Thomas Flohr slotted into third, just 0.003 seconds slower in the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Aston Martin runners completed the remainder of the top five, with Clement Mateu fourth for D’station Racing ahead of The Heart of Racing driver Ian James.

Iron Dames picked up sixth with Sarah Bovy in the No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, leading the pair of United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos of James Cottingham and Josh Caygill.

Ahmed Al Harthy and Francois Heriau rounded out the top ten for Team WRT and AF Corse.

The No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 only barely made it into Hyperpole after only posting a fast lap at the last available opportunity in the initial qualifying session.

That eliminated the second TF Sport Corvette of Hiroshi Koizumi, while Yasser Shahin and the No. 31 BMW of Darren Leung also failed to make the cut.

Other notable eliminations included both Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3s, while the two Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3s also did not make it through to Hyperpole.

The Qatar 1812km, which will run to a ten-hour race length, gets underway Saturday at 11 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying