Porsche needs to “have everything together” to beat Audi

After dominating both Friday practice sessions, Hartley ending up with the quickest time of the day in FP2, Porsche entered Saturday’s qualifying as odds-on favourite for pole, only for Audi to sweep the front row in tricky conditions.

Hartley and teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard will start their title defence from third place in the #1 919 Hybrid, and the Kiwi driver says that Porsche can’t afford any slip-ups during the race if the Weissach marque is going to emerge on top.

“We weren’t caught out, Audi was just a bit quicker [in qualifying],” Hartley told Motorsport.com.

“Everyone seemed shocked, which I can understand when we had such a long streak [of pole positions], but they did a great job and last year we saw they were strong in those conditions.

“It’s something for the team to look into, but in dry conditions we were strong yesterday. We would’ve liked the one point [for pole], but we got the most out of our car with P3.

“The big points are on Sunday, and we think it’s going to be very close and we’ll have to have everything together to beat [Audi].

“We can’t get too excited at the start, in the end it’s all about the average [pace]. These races can come down to just a few seconds, so there’s no guarantees.”

Toyota in the mix

Hartley added that he is expecting Toyota, which was some way off the pace in qualifying owing to control issues, to be right in the mix as well during the frantic opening exchanges.

“I’m not starting the race, Mark is starting it, and I’m sure the first few laps will be hot as always,” he said. “Toyota is there, they have big straight line speed, so they’ll be getting amongst it too.

“Last year we were here with low downforce compared to the other cars, now it’s reversed – the other cars have higher top speeds than us, just from the level of aero we have.

“As you see, it evens out with downforce and energy recuperation; there are a lot of factors. We think we have the right package, so we have high hopes.”