Jani Delighted to “Prove a Point” in Bahrain Qualifying

Neel Jani says he feels he “proved a point” by qualifying the Proton Competition Porsche 963 fourth for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain, in what was his first qualifying appearance of the whole season.

The Swiss veteran, who shares the No. 99 Proton entry with Julien Andlauer and Harry Tincknell, turned a lap of 1:47.234 in Friday evening’s Hyperpole session to get on the second row, and end up as the quickest of the Porsche drivers.

By contrast, the two works Penske Porsche Motorsport cars were only sixth and seventh in the hands of Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell respectively.

Reflecting on his performance, Jani expressed his satisfaction at being able to qualify just over half a second away from Toyota pole-sitter Brendon Hartley, particularly having had so little experience on new tires and low fuel over the course of 2024.

“It was my first qualifying this year,” Jani said. “My first time this year with low fuel was [on Thursday] in FP2! So I was building up to it, and super-happy to be P4.

“In first qualifying, it was hard to judge the grip and everything because we just don’t have the experience. It was only my second time on new tires this weekend. But for Hyperpole I had the feeling and I put it together.

“I’m very happy because I think I proved a point. Some people tried to tell me that I can’t do it anymore, and I think I proved today that’s more politics than reality.

“That’s why I’m doubly happy – on one hand, it’s a great result for the team to be up there in front of all the other Porsches. But also for me personally that I was able to prove a point in my first qualifying of the year.”

Asked why the Proton team elected to put Jani in the car for qualifying, the Swiss driver replied: “Because I asked for it!

“Julien got his promotion [to the factory Porsche team in 2025] and that was the aim. We knew that he should be in a factory car, so neither me nor Harry were fighting over who does qualifying. And Julien did a good job.

“This time I said I wanted to give it a go and super-happy with it to be honest.”

Proton has struggled to make an impact since the team’s starring performance in the 6 Hours of Spa in May, where Andlauer and Jani scored the team’s best finish of the season in fifth and were in genuine contention for much of the race.

But Jani is hopeful that he and his teammates can sign off on an up-and-down campaign on a high note based on the No. 99 car’s performance in practice.

“I think we had a good qualifying car, but I was only focused on that with my preparation and everything,” he said. “But Julien did a good long run [on Thursday] and so did Harry.

“But I think it is still a different game in the race. Over eight hours, a lot of things need to go correctly. If we can get rid of the small mistakes that we have seen in the last few races, I am confident we can do it.

“We have had the lineup all year long, we’ve just had little things [going wrong]. I really hope we can convert this into a good fight up front like we did at Spa.”