If the first stage of the season in the hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship started at least with intrigue, when the Ferrari squad won qualifying in Sebring with the latest 499P sports prototype, then before the 6-hour race at the Portuguese circuit in Portimão was none of that.
Pole was won by Brandon Hartley of the Toyota factory team in 1:30.171, while Kamui Kobayashi, driving Japan’s second GR010 hybrid hypercar, was just 0.273 seconds behind. For example, two Toyota teams will start from the front row in tomorrow’s race, but the Ferrari drivers managed to make it to the second row.
Niklas Nielsen, driving car #50, set the third fastest time, losing nearly a second and a half to Hartley, and his teammate James Kalado was fourth. Crews from the factory Porsche and Peugeot teams will start Sunday’s race from the third row, the Cadillac sports prototype and the second Peugeot car from the fourth row.
In the LMP2 class, Mirko Bortolotti, who plays for Prema, drove the fastest lap – for comparison, we can add that the technology of this class is more than three seconds inferior to hypercars with hybrid power plants.
In the GTE-Am category, Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating took pole position, but was just 0.217 behind Sarah Bovey of the Iron Women’s women’s team, who was driving a Porsche 911 RSR sports car. Incidentally, it was she in Sebring who won the qualification in this class.
The 6 Hours of Portimão starts on Sunday at noon local time.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
