Robert Kubica became the first driver to put a privately-entered, non-factory car on pole in Hypercar class history in the FIA World Endurance Championship, in the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas.
Kubica;’s Ferrari stablemate, Antonio Giovinazzi, took second in the factory #51 car, while third went to Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot.
The initial 12-minute Hypercar qualifying session, to determine the top 10 who would go through to Hyperpole, began with every single car trying to occupy the same piece of tarmac, as concerns conditions would deteriorate meant laps were needed quickly.
The times began with a 2:15.319 from Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari. However, as conditions slowly began to improve, these times improved massively as conditions improved.
With eight minutes to go, Nico Varrone was fastest, with a 2:08.014 in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. The Ferraris then improved, with Nielsen the fastest in the #50 car, a 2:04.112 to beat.
As conditions improved with every lap set, it became a game of who could set a lap last. In the end, Varrone was quickest with a 1:58.156. Robert Kubica was second, exactly a quarter of a second off, while third was Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche.
Going out of the session was Julien Andlauer, in the sister factory #5 Porsche, Stoffel Vandoorne in the #94 Peugeot, Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine, Sheldon van der Linde in the #20 BMW, Harry Tincknell in the #007 Aston Martin, both JOTA-run Cadillacs, with Earl Bamber 16th in the #38 car, followed by teammate Alex Lynn in the sister #12 machine, and Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota.
In the case of ther final three cars, they had put wet tyres on, expecting conditions to worsen throughout the 12 minute session. However, it actually went the other way, leaving these three stuck on the wrong tyres, well off the pace.
“Not a great session for us,” said Dieter Gass, Cadillac JOTA team principal.
“The conditions were right between wet and dry tires. We know that compared to the opposition we struggle with tire warming, therefore we decided to commit to wets at one point in the session.
“Unfortunately, from that point onwards, the track seemed to improve slightly, which favored slick tires and put us down to the bottom of the classification. Not our day.”
Going into Hyperpole, the factory Ferraris were the initial pacesetters, with Giovinazzi on provisional pole, setting a 2:02.155.
Robert Kubica, in the satellite yellow #83 Ferrari, then set a 1:57.655. Giovinazzi was 0.096 off, while Estre went third in the #6 Porsche.
Giovinazzi was on another quick lap, with a fastest sector of all in the middle sector, but he went wide in the final sector.
This turned out to be a trend, as it had started raining slightly again on that part of the lap.
Jean-Eric Vergne had managed, though, to put his #93 Peugeot third, ahead of Estre. The Frenchman, though, was 0.851 adrift of Kubica.
Estre took fourth, while the sister factory Ferrari, the #50 machine driven by Nicklas Nielsen, claimed fifth.
Star of the initial qualifying session, Nico Varrone, took sixth in the #99 Proton Porsche. Charles Milesi was seventh in the #35 Alpine, with #8 Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa eighth.
Dries Vanthoor, onboard the #15 BMW, was ninth. The Belgian spun in the final moments of the session early in the lap in the esses, but managed to save it before hitting the barriers. 10th went to Alex Riberas, behind the wheel of the #009 Aston Martin.
Discussion about this post