Porsche Confident On Race Pace After Landmark Qatar Pole

Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid says he’s confident the German manufacturer has the race pace to contend for a first FIA World Endurance Championship win with the 963 in Qatar this weekend after taking pole.

Matt Campbell delivered Porsche its first top-class WEC pole since 2017, as well as the first-ever for a LMDh car, as he beat Toyota rival Nyck de Vries by 0.164 seconds aboard the No. 5 car in the 10-minute Hyperpole shootout on Friday evening.

“It’s difficult to judge and we focus on ourselves, but the end judge of what our pace is is the timesheets and what the drivers say, and they are really happy and confident,” said Diuguid. “We feel confidence with the pace we’ve shown in practice to fight for the win.

“Honestly both driver groups are happy with the race pace. We’ve been competitive throughout the Prologue and the [practice] sessions, so it gives us positive feelings for the race for sure.”

Diuguid didn’t express any surprise that Toyota emerged as Porsche’s closest rival for pole despite having appeared to struggle in the build-up to the event.

“The track has been evolving ever since we showed up to the Prologue and quite openly speaking, Toyota has communicated to everybody that they have been having tire problems and graining,” he said.

“They are a solid team and I expect them to put in a lot of effort into figuring that out, and it seems at least they are competitive on short run pace.”

Asked to name Porsche’s main rival for victory, Diuguid replied: “I think there are four or five manufacturers that have the pace to compete for the win and it will be about execution during the race.

“If you want me to put names to it: ourselves, Cadillac, Toyota, Ferrari and Peugeot have all shown good pace.”

Campbell Delighted with “Really Important” Pole

For his part, Campbell – who has moved from Porsche’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship squad to become a full-time in the WEC this year – said he was satisfied to score what he feels was a “really important” first pole for the 963 in the WEC.

“In the Hyperpole, on the different [tire] compound, it was a totally different build-up and situation [compared] to what we faced in the [first] qualifying run,” said the Australian.

“I think it was a little bit more difficult on how you phase the tire in. I think the track condition also changed a little bit as well.

“It was not as easy as the qualifying leading up to the Hyperpole, but nevertheless, I’m really happy with the car and obviously a really important pole position for us.

“It’s the first-ever for the 963 in WEC but also for the race tomorrow with the track position is going to be crucial.”

Campbell described the Hypercar competition as “extremely close” and was cautious about his prospects of scoring victory in Saturday’s ten-hour race alongside his co-drivers in the No. 5 car, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.

“Going into the race tomorrow, I think it will be a long fight and everyone will have different strategies in managing the tires and so forth, if they do double or triple [stint] or whatever they do,” he said.

“It’s going to be a long race managing that and also the traffic. I think there will be a lot of track evolution as well. It’s a bit of an unknown at the moment, just what to expect from mid-point to the end of the race.

“Nevertheless, we’ve done a really good job so far this weekend in tuning the car and now it’s been rewarded with pole and a good start for tomorrow.”

John Dagys contributed to this report