Porsche locked out the front-row in qualifying for the first round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone, setting the only lap under 1:40, but the chasing pack behind were not disheartened.
Third-placed Loic Duval said Porsche’s domination over a single-lap was “no surprise”, but was confident that Audi would be a match for them over a race distance.
“In a way it was expected,” he said. “Second would have been possible, but Porsche always have an advantage in qualifying over a single lap, so it was not a big surprise. We did confirm that we have improved a lot since last year; it’s good to have a good performance in a test, but to reach that goal in the races is really important, so we are happy with the way it goes for the moment. I still believe that our pace in the race should be a little bit better, but [Porsche] have made some improvements with their car, so it will not be as bad as last year for them. It will be a tough fight tomorrow.”
Starting fourth was Kazuki Nakajima, joining last year’s champions Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi in the no. 1 Toyota.
“Last year we were on pole, but still it was clear Audi had the best car at Silverstone and it seems the same from yesterday’s long run [in practice],” said the Japanese. “With the Porsche, everyone knew they would be very strong in qualifying and they have a better car than last year, so it’s not going to be easy to predict.
We are not sure where we could be; at Paul Ricard, we were nearly three seconds off and yesterday we were 1.7 seconds off, but it was actually similar to what we expected or maybe better.
“But we are in the fight with the other manufacturers which is a very good sign because Silverstone is not a very good circuit for us. If we can be in the fight here, we can be better at the other tracks. I’m happy with the result.”
Eighth on the grid and second in LMP2 alongside his G-Drive Racing team-mates, Sam Bird was eager to perform in front of his home crowd and on a circuit he knows well.
“The G-Drive Ligier is obviously very competitive, so we’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “Our team-mates are right up there as well, but it’s a long race, anything can happen, we need to make sure we don’t make any mistakes.
“It’s a track I’ve won at in GP2, I feel good here, it’s nice to have the home support as well, so I’m feeling good.”
One place back in third, KCMG’s Nick Tandy was left to rue a wet third practice session which compromised their setup. But on the new Oreca 05’s first outing, there is plenty more to be extracted from the car.
“The trouble we’ve got this weekend is it’s only the third time the car has run on a circuit,” said Tandy. “After yesterday, we took a big swing in the hope that we could get a run in free practise three today, but of course it rained. So we went into qualifying and the car wasn’t ideal, on a single lap pace we were still quite a way behind the Ligiers, which was surprising. We’re not as happy as we wanted.”
Extreme Speed Motorsports endured a frustrating off-season attempting to prepare its new HPD, but with the homologation deadline looming, decided to postpone until next season. Before taking delivery of a pair of Ligiers in time for Spa, the American outfit have brought their old ARX-03bs back from retirement, with Ryan Dalziel qualifying mid-pack in 12th.
“We wish we’d had our new cars here but we’re excited to have the Ligier coming for sure,” said the Scot, racing at Silverstone for the first time since 2012. “We just ran out of time on the HPD; things were getting late and we knew we’d have to homologate the car and it wasn’t what either we wanted or Honda wanted. We knew the old car was still going to be a better option for Sebring and here, so wechose to go back to the old girls. It’s disappointing to have to give up a race in performance; we know that on a high-downforce track like this, we’re at least a second and a half to two seconds off what the Ligiers and Orecas were going to be, but we knew that would be the case when we made the decision.
“For us, this race is purely about survival and points; we don’t want to damage the cars because we’re very low on spares as they stopped production in September of last year. The cars are quite fragile, but if we stay out of trouble we can potentially get a podium and if not we’ll pick up as many points as we can.”
Strakka were down in 13th on their return to the WEC in the LMP2 class, but Danny Watts was fully prepared to sacrifice one lap speed in return for a good race setup.
“We’re just not 100 per cent happy with the balance at the minute, but I honestly think our race pace is going to be much better than over a single lap,” he said. “Trying to keep three drivers happy is always difficult, but luckily the three of us have worked together long enough to know exactly what we want from the car, and our whole programme up to now has been working on a race setup. We haven’t really worried about qualifying because in the grand scheme of things it’s not important. So we’re just trying to nail down a balance that is consistent, easy to drive over a double stint.
Image: Nick Dungan Adrenal Media
6 Hours of Silverstone - Qualifying