Porsche impresses on Le Mans return 13 | 06 | 2014
ON ITS RETURN to the Le Mans 24-Hours for the first timein 16 years, Porsche will start second and fourth with its new 919 Hybrid. Toyota lines up on pole, with three Audis in the top seven.
For Porsche No14 (Romain Dumas/Neel Jani/Marc Lieb) it was Dumas who achieved the fastest lap time (3min 22.146secs) in the final qualifying session. For car No20 (Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber), Bernhard's best lap time from the second qualifying session remained its fastest.
In the last minutes of the final qualifying, Neel and Brendon were in their respective cars but had no chance of improving because of the ‘so called’ slow-zones for cautions after accidents out on the track. Pole was taken by Toyota.
PORSCHE DRIVE QUOTES:
919 Hybrid No14
Romain Dumas: “I had a great run. We improved the car all the time. We still had to fight a bit of understeer, but I’m happy. Unfortunately, on my best lap I had to overtake another car, which I think cost a few tenths of a second, but it was fun to drive and I enjoyed it.“
Neel Jani: “Second on the grid is a great result. Romain put in a good lap early on and this allowed us to take some risks. But it is a bit of a shame I didn’t get a free run at the end. I believe there was more to come. I had a good first sector, but there were slow-zones everywhere. We aimed for pole and now we will start from the front row. I think we can be happy. Now let’s look forward to the start of the race.“
Marc Lieb: “The car was very good. I was driving with the same tyres Romain had used during his five-lap stint. On my fast lap there was a bit of traffic out on track, but the in-lap was quite good. I am pleased the car feels so good. I think we are ready for the race now.”
Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid No20
Timo Bernhard: “It was a shame I did not find one single clear lap. In the beginning of the third qualifying session I had to deal with slower cars everywhere. It's a pity, because without that we clearly could have been able to improve our lap times. Nevertheless, it was a good fight out there. The car feels fine. From now on, we have to concentrate on the race. We will get into a different rhythm, and I'm looking forward to that. There have already been a lot of accidents this year, so causing many interruptions – which is a bit alarming.“
Brendon Hartley: “It was a tough session out there with slow-zones and red and yellow flags. It was a matter of luck who got a clear lap and who didn’t, which I found a bit frustrating. But I think from the team’s point of view it was a great effort. Second and fourth on the grid at the return of Porsche to the prototype class in Le Mans – this is fantastic.“
Mark Webber: “I did just two timed laps, so it was very quiet for me. We got the car ready for Timo and I had a pretty good feeling for it. The track was a bit green when I was at the wheel and the temperature was a little bit higher compared to last night. However, I’m absolutely ready to race now.“
Le Mans 24-Hours — Qualifying (Top 10 of 56):
1. LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima 3m21.789s;
2. LMP1 #14 Porsche Dumas/Jani/Lieb 3m22.146s;
3. LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi 3m22.523s;
4. LMP1 #20 Porsche Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 3m22.908s;
5. LMP1 #3 Audi Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis 3m23.271s;
6. LMP1 #2 Audi Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer 3m24.276s;
7. LMP1 #1 Audi Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen 3m25.814s;
8. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche 3m29.763s;
9. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer 3m31.608s;
10. LMP2 #46 Ligier Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy 3m37.609s.
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Jim McGill