Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI
***Antonio Giovinazzi set a new pole record for the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Lusail International Circuit as he topped Hyperpole with a 1:38.359 in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P. It marks his second pole in the WEC after last year’s Circuit of The Americas round, and a fifth for Ferrari in Hypercar.
***Ferrari becomes the fourth manufacturer to reach the milestone of five outright WEC poles after Audi, Porsche and Toyota.
***On the lap that secured pole, Giovinazzi reflected: “It was not an easy lap. In first qualifying I felt more comfortable but in Hyperpole I was surprised by how the wind changed and it was not easy to drive, but on the last lap everything came together, especially in the last sector when I did a good improvement.”
***Giovinazzi also paid tribute to LMGT3 polesitter Sean Gelael, whose father Ricardo has been a prolific backer of Giovinazzi’s career. The pair also shared a Ligier LMP2 car for Extreme Speed Motorsports for two WEC rounds in 2016 at Fuji and Shanghai. “We started together in formula cars, since karting we have known each other, so it’s nice to celebrate this fantastic result together,” said the Italian.
***Gelael made it three poles for McLaren in LMGT3 since the category’s inception last year, the most of any manufacturer, as well as back-to-back poles for United Autosports following last year’s Bahrain season finale. United also becomes the first team to score two consecutive LMGT3 poles in the category’s history.
***Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Alex Lynn described qualifying fourth in the better of the two V-Series.R’s “a really solid start for the team” in its maiden outing. “We did really well from the first day of the Prologue and now we’re at the front, which is where we want to be,” said the Briton. “I think it’s going to be a super-close race. I think that was the maximum we had. Our race pace is strong so I think we can do well.”
***Toyota driver Brendon Hartley was left to regret a spin that left the No. 8 GR010 Hybrid last in first qualifying. “Long story short, I didn’t get enough tire temperature on my first lap, and the car also bottomed out at high-speed,” reflected the New Zealander. “We lowered our ride height, but not enough to expect that, so it caught me off-guard. And then on the second lap I bottomed at Turn 12 and ran wide. It’s a bit annoying, because as a car crew we feel like we’ve been on it.”
***BMW driver Robin Frijns said Hypercar drivers need to be “careful” around the newly-installed gravel strips dotted on the outside of corners around the track as they have the potential to cause significant damage during the race. “I like those gravel [strips] in the sense of you know exactly where the limit is,” Frijns said. “The only problem is that especially GTs will drive over it a lot and then you get like a ditch. When we drive over it, doing a mistake, we bottom out and we damage the floor completely.”
***Peugeot’s No. 94 car, which qualified 12th, was rebuilt in 14 hours around a new monocoque following Wednesday’s second practice session to “prevent any potential issues”, per a team spokesperson.
***Aston Martin’s No. 009 Valkyrie had originally qualified 15th in the hands of Marco Sorensen, but was stripped of its lap times when the Danish driver exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 1 km/h. It puts the car back to 18th, with the sister No. 007 entry qualifying 16th in the hands of Harry Tincknell.
***With Silver-rated drivers taking part in LMGT3 Hyperpole, Valentino Rossi made his WEC qualifying debut, putting the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO eighth. “For me, it’s very good to have the chance to do Hyperpole, because last year, Saturday was always a day where you wait and wait, and you never drive,” said Rossi. “For the Silver it’s a great opportunity to drive the car with new tires and low fuel.”
***TF Sport’s Ben Keating has confirmed he will be present for next month’s Imola race despite previous misgivings about racing during Easter, which falls on April 20, race day at the Italian venue. “I recognize that [Christianity] is not religion out there, but Italy is home of the Catholic church, and Easter is one of the most important religious holidays,” Keating told Sportscar365. “It was pretty hard to convince my wife and my kids that I should be racing that weekend instead of celebrating with them at home.”
***He jokingly added: “Not only am I missing Easter, but the Saturday [April 19] is my wife’s birthday — and since she gave me permission, she has been using that against me, and I’m sure it won’t stop after Imola. I’ll be paying for this decision all year long!”
***Ex-Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello is on-site at Lusail to support son Eduardo, who is making his WEC debut with the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin LMGT3 team.
***Mathieu Jaminet is set for his first WEC race outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which the Frenchman admitted has taken some getting used to. “It’s quite a bit different atmosphere and paddock with what I’m used to in IMSA,” he told Sportscar365. “I’m learning on the go, but it’s been going well so far.”
***Jaminet and fellow Porsche Penske Motorsport third driver Matt Campbell are so far confirmed also for the 6 Hours of Imola, 24 Hours of Le Mans and 8 Hours of Bahrain, although Jaminet indicated they’ll likely be called up for the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of The Americas due to the extreme heat benefiting three-driver lineups.
***Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl gave further insight into the issue that kept the two Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in the garage during Wednesday’s opening Free Practice session.
***Wendl told Sportscar365: “There is a rule set that the engine needs to be [stopped] during the refueling process and if the car is jacked up in the air. So, our software made all those things happen, it killed the engine and it doesn’t allow to start the car. But then at scrutineering, the starter was still cranking and this is also not allowed. And this prevented us to receive the final scrutineering sticker and we had to make an urgent firmware update for our ECU to even not allow the car to crank when it’s up in the air.”
***Wendl also reiterated that Mercedes-AMG is not planning to build a prototype for top-class competition, noting that the brand has “no capacity” to take on such a project.
***Wendl said: “We have big challenges in front of us, also next to our WEC entry. Also we built up our Affalterbach Racing company, which is also a process which needs to be settled to keep on going with our successor [GT3] car. So there are so many things going on at the same time, and with our limited number of staff we have want to stay focused and we want to bring up and keep the quality and improve the quality for the future.”
***ACO president Pierre Fillon was in action during Thursday’s one-hour Qatar Classic Challenge race. The Frenchman drove a 1971 Chevron B19 and finished 17th overall.
***While North American viewers will have the option to purchase access the FIA WEC App for the first time, full live coverage of Friday’s race will also be available on streaming platform Max, while Canadians can catch highlights on CityTV+. A free, live Spanish-language broadcast will be made available to viewers in Latin America for the first time via the series’ official YouTube channel for free. Click Here for the full broadcast package.
***Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson and Graham Goodwin will again be in the WEC broadcast booth this year, with Bruce Jouanny and Alexandra Legouix on pit lane for the ten-hour contest. Radio Le Mans, meanwhile, has free coverage on RS1 featuring John Hindhaugh, Jonny Palmer and Bruce Jones.
John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report
