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Practice report
WEC Losail

WEC Qatar: Campbell puts Porsche top in opening practice

Porsche took up where it left off in the pre-season Prologue when it topped the times in opening practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser in Qatar.

#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki

Matt Campbell was fastest in the #5 factory Porsche 963 LMDh in the 90-minute session as the German manufacturer maintained its monopoly of top spot in the timesheets at the Losail International Circuit since the start of the two-day pre-season test on Monday.

The Australian posted a 1m42.486s to end up fastest, though Ferrari diver James Calado ran him close after a series of improvements late in the session.

Calado jumped from third to second in the times with a 1m42.561s in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar to demote the second Porsche Penske Motorsport entry driven by Kevin Estre.

The Briton improved again to a 1m42.532s to end up less than five hundredths down on the Porsche in top spot.

Estre’s 1m42.695s was still good enough for third in the final FP1 classification, ahead of Alex Lynn in the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R.

The Caddy driver improved to 1m42.962s as the clock counted down towards the end of the session.

The times were significantly slower than the best from the Prologue.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Campbell’s best was two seconds shy of Frederic Makowiecki’s 1m40.404s set on Tuesday afternoon.

Track temperatures were higher than on Tuesday, while high winds also afflicted the circuit.

The customer Porsches fielded in the WEC by the Proton and Jota teams took positions five to seven.

Harry Tincknell claimed fifth in the Proton car with a 1m43.026s, Jenson Button sixth in the #38 Jota entry on a 1m43.099s and Callum Ilott seventh in #12 on a 1m43.128s.

Kamui Kobayashi’s jumped to eighth with 1m43.202s at the end of the session aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH.

Antonio Fuoco took ninth aboard the second AF Corse-run factory Ferrari, while Loic Duval rounded out the top 10 in the best of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs.

#95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: Joshua Caygill, Nicolás Pino, Marino Sato

#95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: Joshua Caygill, Nicolás Pino, Marino Sato

Photo by: Erik Junius

The new LMGT3 class was led by the #95 United Autosport’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in which Nico Pino posted a 1m55.824s.

The two AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s took second and third positions, Alessio Rovera’s 1m55.983 edging out the 1m56.069s from Davide Rigon.

The Prodrive/AMR-run Heart of Racing and D’station Aston Martin Vantages took fourth and fifth positions in the hands of David Mancinelli and Erwan Bastard respectively.

The session was red-flagged three minutes early when Raffaele Marciello spun off in the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh and got beached in the gravel trap.

There were two previous reds, one caused by an IT issue in race control and the other when a photographer strayed into a dangerous area.

WEC Qatar - FP1 results

   
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 39

1'42.486

  188.981
2
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 45

+0.046

1'42.532

0.046 188.897
3
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 40

+0.107

1'42.593

0.061 188.784
4
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn France S. Bourdais Cadillac V-Series.R 40

+0.476

1'42.962

0.369 188.108
5
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 32

+0.540

1'43.026

0.064 187.991
6
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 38

+0.613

1'43.099

0.073 187.858
7
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 39

+0.642

1'43.128

0.029 187.805
8
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 31

+0.716

1'43.202

0.074 187.670
9
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 40

+0.909

1'43.395

0.193 187.320
10
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 39

+0.928

1'43.414

0.019 187.286
11
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 43

+1.014

1'43.500

0.086 187.130
12
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 44

+1.041

1'43.527

0.027 187.081
13
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 37

+1.059

1'43.545

0.018 187.049
14
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 38

+1.139

1'43.625

0.080 186.904
15
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 42

+1.357

1'43.843

0.218 186.512
16
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 40

+1.462

1'43.948

0.105 186.323
17
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 36

+1.489

1'43.975

0.027 186.275
18
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 43

+1.498

1'43.984

0.009 186.259
19
Isotta Fraschini HYPERCAR
11 Canada A. Serravalle
C. Bennett
France J. Vernay
Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C 30

+1.840

1'44.326

0.342 185.648
20
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 35

+13.338

1'55.824

11.498 167.219
21
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 37

+13.497

1'55.983

0.159 166.989
22
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 36

+13.583

1'56.069

0.086 166.866
23
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 33

+13.639

1'56.125

0.056 166.785
24
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 38

+13.816

1'56.302

0.177 166.531
25
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 35

+13.840

1'56.326

0.024 166.497
26
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 37

+13.928

1'56.414

0.088 166.371
27
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 36

+13.955

1'56.441

0.027 166.333
28
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 37

+13.991

1'56.477

0.036 166.281
29
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 36

+14.352

1'56.838

0.361 165.767
30
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 34

+14.371

1'56.857

0.019 165.741
31
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 33

+14.428

1'56.914

0.057 165.660
32
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy France D. Pin Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 27

+14.458

1'56.944

0.030 165.617
33
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 35

+14.477

1'56.963

0.019 165.590
34
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 29

+14.584

1'57.070

0.107 165.439
35
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Italy G. Roda
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 33

+14.618

1'57.104

0.034 165.391
36
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 30

+14.660

1'57.146

0.042 165.332
37
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Russian Federation T. Boguslavskiy South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 30

+15.115

1'57.601

0.455 164.692

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