Tag: Porsche

Porsche completes dominant day with WEC LMGT3 win in Qatar

The inaugural FIA WEC race for the LMGT3 class wasn’t quite the door-banging thriller that many of the teams expected before the lights went out, but it generated plenty of talking points after nine hours and 55 minutes of racing in Qatar. The No. …

The inaugural FIA WEC race for the LMGT3 class wasn’t quite the door-banging thriller that many of the teams expected before the lights went out, but it generated plenty of talking points after nine hours and 55 minutes of racing in Qatar.

The No. 92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 LMGT3 R 992 came across the line first after an engrossing battle with the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, adding to Porsche’s perfect day (along with the overall podium sweep). Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler were masterful and constructed a fault-free performance in the Lithuanian team’s FIA WEC debut.

The performance continued the team’s title-winning form from the Asian Le Mans Series over the winter and handed it an early championship lead heading into the European rounds of the championship. It also adds to the team’s remarkable journey since making its GT3 race debut in January 2023.

“It was tough. I’m really tired, but it was a fantastic result for us,” Bachler said after the race, in which Pure Rxcing became the first Lithuanian outfit to win in the WEC. “It was all about what Alex (Malykhin) did at the beginning with his pace. He is really strong for his category; he works so hard. We prepared ourselves in Asia and drove well together.

“We stayed out of trouble; we didn’t get penalties.”

The Porsche win should take nothing away from the Heart of Racing team, which powered to a well-earned podium for the 2024 Vantage AMR LMGT3 in its WEC debut and just its second race globally.

Ian James set up the run to second, completing his drive time early before Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas completed the task, coming home just 4.8s behind the winning Porsche.

Third and a lap down from the top two winning Porsche was the No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin. The Japanese team’s new-look lineup delivered the goods and made it a double podium for the British brand.

Oh so close fto success or MotoGP star Valentino Rossi. JEP/Motorsport Images

The No. 777’s run in the closing stages with Marco Sorensen aboard denied the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 — and consequently MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi — a podium finish.

This was a race that ran almost entirely green, with no major incidents. As a result, the key to victory became the strategy surrounding Bronze driver time. Once they all completed their minimum time behind the wheel, the pecking order became clearer.

There were major differences in strategy as some teams opted to get it done quickly, while others rested their amateurs until the second half of the race. It played a part in preventing the race from becoming an out-and-out thriller, because the field ended up spread out after a few hours and only a handful of cars finished on the same lap.

Heart of Racing and the No. 46 BMW’s strong results were set up by iron-man efforts from Ian James and Ahmad Al Harthy early in the race. The pair were the first of the Bronze drivers to complete their mandatory time, allowing the pro drivers in their cars to fight their way to the finish.

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Al Harthy’s 3h22m stint during the hottest part of the day was perhaps the most impressive. The Omani driver in his WRT debut stayed in the car for a full fourth stint, significantly longer than necessary.

“We had an option to keep me in the car for my entire driving time. They kept asking me how I was feeling,” he said. “I told them if it works for the strategy I will stay in.

“45m in I found out I had no water,” he added. “It was tough. Luckily I had pit stops when I could drink, but I was just motivated to do the best job for my team.”

Behind the No. 46, the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 — which spent a period of the race in the lead — took fifth, ahead of the No. 31 WRT BMW that finished 1m7s adrift in sixth.

Much attention was paid to the six new-for-2024 GT3 cars in the field this week, and the results were mixed across the entries from TF Sport, Heart of Racing, D’Station Racing and Proton Competition.

The clear standout once the race got underway was the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3. D’Station and Heart of Racing’s cars looked quick throughout and suffered no mechanical issues, making for a memorable debut for the car on the world stage.

TF Sport started strong with pole in the new Corvette, but it wasn’t to be after electrical gremlins reared an ugly head. Motorsport Images

The Corvettes and Fords, on the other hand, struggled to leave a strong first impression.

TF Sport turned heads by taking pole position with the Z06 LMGT3.R. But its level of optimism wouldn’t last long as the Hyperpole pace-setting No. 81 quickly lost the lead to the Pure Rxcing Porsche and eventually ran into a number of mechanical problems.

The first was a shifter issue that saw the car grind to a halt at pit-in, before it was eventually retired after 177 laps when the crew found damage to an electrical harness during the spring change in the garage. It was one of two cars in the class that failed to finish, the other being the No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus.

“After the dream start to our WEC campaign with Tom getting pole in the brand new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, unfortunately, today didn’t go as planned,” factory driver Charlie Eastwood summarised.

“We had a great start to the race, but after ending up a few laps down, we thought it best – as we’re still new to this brand new car – to make a test out of the race itself.

“As we came in for a stop after my first stint, we realized that we had a problem with an electrical harness and had to retire the car. It was such a high yesterday, but it wasn’t the result we hoped for today. Imola is just around the corner, and I know we will come back strong.”

The team’s No. 82 crew thankfully produced a better outing, but Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud and Daniel Juncadella were never in contention, finishing a distant 10th.

Proton, meanwhile, spent the entire buildup to the race and the race itself seemingly on the back foot. From the shipping delays before the Prologue to the event’s conclusion Saturday evening, the Mustangs were unable to claw their way to the front of the field.

A ninth-place finish for Dennis Olsen, Giorgio Roda and Mikkel Pedersen did at least score the team some points for all its efforts this week to get the cars prepped and racing.

The good news is that there were no major issues; the bad news is that the German team doesn’t yet look close to being at the sharp end.

Next up on the 2024 FIA WEC schedule is the 6 Hours of Imola on April 21st.

RESULTS

Hard lessons learned from 2023 paid off, says Porsche’s Kuratle

Perhaps the Porsche Penske Motorsport team will take a moment to reflect on what it achieved in winning victory in the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, and celebrate in the days to come. But immediately after the race, before the Rolexes were slipped onto …

Perhaps the Porsche Penske Motorsport team will take a moment to reflect on what it achieved in winning victory in the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, and celebrate in the days to come.

But immediately after the race, before the Rolexes were slipped onto wrists, the emotions were still raw. Urs Kuratle, director of Factory Racing for Porsche Motorsport, said that the success was made all the satisfying by the work the team had done in the aftermath of last year’s race, when assorted glitches prevented the then-new cars from contending for the win.

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“It’s huge for us,” said Kuratle. “Especially if you think where we were coming from last year here. That was not our best performance. I have to say there was a lot of lessons learned throughout the year. and it pays off.

“There was a lot of work from all our parties. It’s not only the IMSA team we have out of Mooresville, but also the team in Mannheim, the WEC team was part of it and obviously people in Weissach, the development team. And not to forget also our chassis partner, Multimatic, because, again, we had a lot of lessons to learn from last year, but it pays out now. We are extremely happy.”

Not lost on Kuratle was the fact that all four Porsches – the two two factory cars and the private entries run by JDC-Miller and Proton Competition Mustang Sampling – ran relatively trouble-free and finished the race. The winning PPM car’s No.6 sister entry was fourth, with Proton and JDC-Miller immediately behind in fifth and sixth, respectively.

“That’s big for us, especially because reliability was one of our biggest concerns,” he said. “Congratulations to the customers, because they really did very well. JDC had some bad luck early in the race with the unfortunate yellow, Proton did a great job. I don’t think I’ve realized completely what it means yet.”

For Cameron, a Rolex win years in the making

Winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona is a career highlight for any driver, but for Dane Cameron, the victory was especially sweet and emotional. Cameron has three IMSA championships, including one with Penske in the Acura days. But through all of those, …

Winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona is a career highlight for any driver, but for Dane Cameron, the victory was especially sweet and emotional. Cameron has three IMSA championships, including one with Penske in the Acura days. But through all of those, including title with Turner Motorsport and Action Express Racing, he had yet to achieve even a class victory at Daytona.

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“My first 24 hours at Daytona was 2009, so in a bunch of different categories, I just never seemed to have any luck here in any way, shape, or form,” Cameron said. “Never had a podium here. Never. I don’t even know if I’ve ever finished on the lead lap here, to be honest. It’s always been the one that got away, and the one that just didn’t seem to be able to get done for some reason. Kind of compared to what Josef [Newgarden] went through last year at the [Indianapolis] 500 – you don’t want to not have one without the other. You don’t want to win championships without having the big race to go with it.

“Definitely proud of everything that I was able to achieve with different teams and brands in the championship, but it always felt like you were missing something to not have success in the 24 Hours at Daytona. To have that as an overall is definitely something that I’m super, super proud of; super happy for. Great to do it with this team, as well, after being here for a number of years now. Kind of slipped through our fingers in the Acura days, for sure.”

Matt Campbell, who formed part of the winning driver line-up alongside Felipe Nasr, Newgarden and Cameron, was Nasr’s full-season partner in 2023, but for this season he’s swapping with Cameron and going to the World Endurance Championship program for PPM. Like Nasr, it’s not his first Daytona win – the pair won GTD PRO together, along with Mathieu Jaminet, with Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 – but it is his first overall.

“I’m glad it came our way,” Campbell said. “After all the hard work, the difficult year we had in 2023, especially here, I feel this is the best gift we could give ourselves. I’m very pleased for the team, for the whole work they’ve done all week.”

Newgarden feeling “a little awkward” in joining ranks of Rolex 24 winners

Josef Newgarden said he felt “a little awkward” celebrating among the sports car regulars that he joined in taking Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No.7 Porsche 963 to victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. This year’s race was only Newgarden’s second Rolex …

Josef Newgarden said he felt “a little awkward” celebrating among the sports car regulars that he joined in taking Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No.7 Porsche 963 to victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

This year’s race was only Newgarden’s second Rolex 24 – he raced LMP2 last year with Tower Motorsports – so he’s standing at a 50 percent win record. The more outstanding fact is that it comes just months after his 2023 Indianapolis 500 win, and he joins former IndyCar teammate Helio Castroneves on the very short list of drivers who have won both within a year.

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“I’ve got to be honest, it’s a little awkward for me because I feel like I’m just hanging out with this really great group of people that ended up winning a race and I just happened to be there, in a lot of ways,” Newgarden smiled.

“This victory belongs to a great collection of people within motorsports, Porsche Penske Motorsports is a big body of people, both in the United States and in Germany. It’s an iconic brand with Porsche and an iconic team with Team Penske, a deep legacy between the two, and they’re very deserving of this victory.”

While the two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion now has another huge accomplishment on his resume, he was keen to deflect credit for the win back to the rest of the team.

“I feel honored to just have been here,” he said. “I didn’t wreck the car. Like, that’s how I feel. I’m so proud of these guys. It’s a very awkward feeling being a race car driver in this situation. I’m not used to it. I’ve driven open-wheel cars for the last 12 years, and you’re very singularly focused in a lot of ways in that sport, and over here I feel like I’ve got family that I’m just really proud of. I felt like that at the end of the race. I could cry thinking about it.”

JDC leads privateer Porsche duo at the top of Roar session four

For the first time since the first privateer GTP team joined the IMSA WeaherTech SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca last May, a Porsche 963 from outside the Porsche Penske Motorsport camp has led an official session, and the two privateers were …

For the first time since the first privateer GTP team joined the IMSA WeaherTech SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca last May, a Porsche 963 from outside the Porsche Penske Motorsport camp has led an official session, and the two privateers were one-two in the fourth Roar Before the 24 session at Daytona.

Phil Hanson was the quickest with a 1m35.216s (134.6mph) lap in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963, 0.113s better than Neel Jani in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche. Hanson’s time was 0.001s better than Pipo Derani’s time from yesterday that had been the previous best lap of the weekend.

“The JDC boys did a really good job of running out with a very strong package this morning and I think that shows in both practice sessions,” Hanson said. “[We] were very fast in the morning when my teammates Richard [Westbrook] and Ben [Keating] and Tijmen [van der Helm] drove, and it also translated to the afternoon. It was interesting to see how it might change as the track temps came up a bit with still being on the sort of softer compound. But happy days.”

It was another run in the top three for Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW. De Phillippi was followed by two Cadillacs, Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R leading Tom Blomqvist in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing entry.

Ben Keating topped LMP2 as United Autosports took first and second in the session. Keating’s 1m39.047s (129.39mph) lap was 0.047s faster in the No. 2 ORECA than teammate Paul Di Resta in the No. 22.

“It’s early, obviously, in the process of going through this event,” said Di Resta. “It’s relatively new to us. We had a test here recently where we got on top of some stuff, but we’re here just trying to learn as much as we can [to] try and get our numbers together to process what we can between the break of the Roar and the race, and certainly come back and try and fight very strong in front of the field. But it’s certainly looking like we’re near the top. Not quite sure where everybody else falls into that, but I think we’d be naive in the sense that we’re just concentrating on ourselves trying to make the best possible car with the philosophy…and hopefully that will enable us to try to battle for the win.”

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Connor Zilisch moved the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA to third on the time sheet with his final flying lap, posting a 1m39.343s. Mikkel Jensen in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA and Joao Barbosa in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier were fourth and fifth.

Three Porsches topped GTD and the GT class overall, Klaus Bachler posting the best time of 1m45.799s (121.35mph) for MDK Motorsports in the No. 86 911 GT3R that was good for the best GT time of the weekend so far. Trent Hindman was 0.191s back in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche, followed by Fred Makowiecki in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports car at 1m45.999s.

“I would definitely take it if next Sunday we would end up in this position,” stated Bachler. “But yeah, it was a good session for us. The only problem is it’s quite cold today. It was much warmer yesterday, and it looks like the weather forecast for next weekend for the 24 is a lot warmer so…it was a good session for us and the car felt really good.”

Dennis Olsen was the first non-Porsche in GTD with the No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, with Kei Cozzolino in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 completing the top five.

Mario Farnbacher led GTD PRO for Heart of Racing, the first time this weekend that the team has had its No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo at the top. Farnbacher had a 1m46.066s lap to best Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 by 0.144s. Rockenfeller’s teammate in the No. 65 Mustang, Dirk Mueller, was third at 1m46.320s.

Daniel Serra (No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296) and Laurin Heinrich (No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) were fourth and fifth. Two GTD PRO cars didn’t make it out during the session, both undergoing engine changes – the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R and the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán.

Up next: The first night session of the Roar, a two-hour test beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET.

RESULTS

Porsche on top for first Roar Before the 24 session

Nick Tandy took the top spot with a 1m35.617s lap around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that he’ll share with Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre as the first session …

Nick Tandy took the top spot with a 1m35.617s lap around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that he’ll share with Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre as the first session of the Roar Before the 24 test days went into the books. The session was the first of five today and tomorrow as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams prepare for the Rolex 24 At Daytona next weekend, and for qualifying on Sunday.

While Porsche Penske Motorsports had its two cars on track from the beginning of the session, both privateer Porsche 963s were being worked on for half the time or more. The No. 5 Proton Competition car and the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963, next to each other in the garage, were sitting with bodywork off, engines running and surrounded by Porsche personnel.

Richard Westbrook sits ready to go as the JDC-Miller MotorSports crew works on the No. 85 Porsche 963 during the first half of the first Roar Before the 24 test session. Richard S. James photo

The JDC Miller MotorSports 963 emerged from the garage halfway through the 90-minute session. The team reported that the car had undergone a myriad of updates from Porsche since arriving at the track, and in the process two wires were switched. Richard Westbrook and Tijmen van der Helm managed 11 laps in the No. 85, while Neel Jani didn’t get the No. 5 Proton 963 on track until there were less than 10 minutes left in the session and completed only four circuits.

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The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 was second quickest in the hands of Augusto Farfus. Farfus was only 0.35s short of Tandy, and 0.101s ahead of Nick Yelloly’s 1m35.753s in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry. Two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs completed the top five, Alex Palou leading the pair in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry at 1m35.863s and Jack Aitken another 0.166s back in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Colton Herta produced the fastest time in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras in sixth.

United Autosports USA announced its entry into IMSA with a 1m39.916s lap by Paul Di Resta in the No. 22 ORECA to lead LMP2. Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen was second in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry, 0.031s short of Di Resta’s best, with Nicklas Nielsen posting the third-best time in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA.

Katherine Legge posted the top time of all the GT cars to claim the top spot in GTD at 1m46.289s for Gradient Racing in the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. Legge will share the car with Sheena Monk, her full-season co-driver, Tati Calderon and Stevan McAleer.

In a major turnaround from Lamborghini’s form in last year’s Rolex, Lamborghini sat on top the GTD PRO times as Matteo Cressoni posted the best time in the class in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Huracán GT3 Evo2 at 1m46.918s, 0.629s off Legge’s best. The No. 60 was a late switch to GTD PRO; although Claudio Schiavoni is a Bronze-rated driver and thus eligible for GTD in which the car was originally entered, two Platinum-rated drivers on the squad, Matteo Cairoli and Romain Grosjean, make the car ineligible for GTD.

AWA’s Nico Varrone put the No. 17 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in second in GTD, third GT overall, at 1m46.925s. GTD PRO cars took the next three spots, led by Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini only 0.22s behind his teammate. James Calado put the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in third with a 1m46.942s, and Frederic Vervisch (No. 64) lea his Ford Multimatic Motorsports teammate Harry Tincknell (No. 65) as the two Mustang GT3s were fourth and fifth in GTD PRO.

Antonio Fuoco was third in GTD with the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at 1m47.066s, followed by Parker Thompson (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3) and Jan Heylen (No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R).

UP NEXT: The final WeatherTech Championship session of the day will be a 1h45m split session beginning at 4:15 p.m. ET.

RESULTS

 

Wehrlein dominates Formula E season opener in Mexico City

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein dominated the Formula E season opener in Mexico City, leading home Sebastien Buemi, with the victory being investigated for an unspecified technical infringement until officials later cleared Wehrlein’s car after the …

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein dominated the Formula E season opener in Mexico City, leading home Sebastien Buemi, with the victory being investigated for an unspecified technical infringement until officials later cleared Wehrlein’s car after the post-race inspection.

The Porsche driver started from pole, making a clean getaway. Buemi, who started besides Wehrlein on the front row, had to fend off Maximilian Guenther’s play for second going into Turn 1.

The first change for the lead came on lap three when Wehrlein took the wider Attack Mode line, ceding position to Buemi who did the same on the following lap, but maintained the lead.

Five laps later, the race’s only safety car period came, as Buemi’s Envision Racing teammate Robin Frijns lost control on the exit of Turn 16, coming out of the Foro Sol stadium section, then smacking the Turn 17 wall. When the race resumed three laps later, Buemi took his remaining Attack Mode time, ceding the race lead once again to Wehrlein who was untroubled for the rest of the race, eventually crossing the line 1.164s ahead of Buemi.

While it was a dominant win, being able to control the race from pole position provided the German with the most satisfaction.

“It was a pretty good day with pole position and the race win,” said Wehrlein. “I think our focus in the off season was especially on qualifying. That was one of our weaknesses in the last half of the season last year and I hope we did a good step forward. Let’s see if it’s just a Mexican topic or if we can confirm that in the next couple of events.

“Nevertheless, really happy about the pole position — probably as happy about the race win to be honest. The race was not an easy one. It probably looked easier than it was because I was leading almost the whole race and couldn’t save a lot of energy, just always a little bit to increase my targets.

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“I saw Seb doing one mistake behind me which then opened up a gap and put him out of the slipstream and from there the race was a bit easier.”

Nick Cassidy took third in his first race for Jaguar TCS Racing, being the only driver in the top five to gain a spot in the race, having started fourth after a one-place grid penalty. He also set the fastest lap, being the only driver to break into the 1m14s during the race.

“I think it’s really hard at this circuit to stay close,” said Cassidy. “The tires get very very hot. It’s very difficult to overtake and we were stuck. I think the grid position penalty probably really hurt me, but I can’t complain. It’s a nice start for us as a team.”

After his early flirtation with the podium positions, Guenther eventually finished fourth ahead of Mitch Evans who slipped back from the frontrunners but resisted a push from Jean-Eric Vergne in the latter stages of the race.

NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes split the two DS Pesnkes, taking seventh ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, while Jake Dennis recovered from a dismal qualifying to finish ninth ahead of his Andretti Global teammate Norman Nato – although, as with Wehrlein, both Andretti cars’ results are dependent on a post-race investigation.

While Frijn’s shunt brought out the only safety car, it wasn’t the only incident in what was a rather tame race by Formula E’s standards. Abt Cupra’s Lucas di Grassi retired on the first lap after going off on the way into the stadium section, while Antonio Felix da Costa’s race ended two laps later as a result of suspension damage from contact with Nico Mueller, who was eventually the last finisher on the lead lap, beating only Dan Ticktum who finished off the pace and a lap down.

RESULTS

Porsche’s Wehrlein takes pole for Formula E season opener in Mexico City

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein will start the Mexico E-Prix from pole position after beating Sebastien Buemi in the final duel of qualifying for the opening round of the 2024 ABB Formula E World Championship. After two open qualifying sessions, the field …

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein will start the Mexico E-Prix from pole position after beating Sebastien Buemi in the final duel of qualifying for the opening round of the 2024 ABB Formula E World Championship.

After two open qualifying sessions, the field being split in two for each one, the pair made it through the head-to-head duels where the fastest four drivers from each respective qualifying group compete over a single lap to set the fastest lap time.

Wehrlein’s time in the final of 1m13.298s was 0.251s quicker than Buemi, who bettered the German’s sector three time, although the late charge was not enough for the Envision Racing driver to overhaul the deficit from the first two sectors.

The pole is Wehrlein’s fourth in Formula E, and his third in the Gen3 car, while second on the grid represents a best qualifying result for Buemi in Mexico City, whose previous best qualifying result at the track was third.

Jaguar TCS Racing’s Nick Cassidy qualified third after he was beaten by Wehrlein in the semi final duels, with teammate Mitch Evans — who set the day’s best time of 1m13.103s in his quarter final duel with Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther — classified fourth after his defeat to Buemi. Both, however, will drop back a place after being hit with penalties for red flag infringements in FP1. That elevates Guenther and NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes to the second row of the grid, both having fallen to Evans and Buemi respectively in the quarter finals.

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Robin Frijns was classified eighth after losing out to Wehrlein following a mistake going into Turn 1. He’s another driver that will move up a position, with seventh-placed qualifier Stoffel Vandoorne also dropping a place for a Friday red flag infringement. Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) rounded out the top 10 after just missing out on spots in the duels.

Another to miss out was the reigning champion Jake Dennis, who was eliminated at the group stage. While he was an early pacesetter in the second group, traffic prevented Dennis from nailing a competitive time towards the end of the session and after a mistake going into the Turn 5 hairpin, he aborted his final attempt.

His Andretti Global teammate Norman Nato was eliminated, too. Firstly by Wehrlein ousting him from the top four on time, but then by having his best lap time deleted for going over the power limit. Nato will start 13th, with Dennis one spot behind.

One more big-name casualty was Abt Cupra’s Lucas di Grassi, who clipped an outside wall at Turn 9, damaging his left-rear suspension. He will start the race down in 19th.

RESULTS

Button goes full-time in WEC Hypercar with JOTA Porsche

Jenson Button is set to join Hertz Team JOTA for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in the team’s No. 38 Porsche 963 LMDh prototype in the Hypercar class. This move will see Button going full-time to the FIA WEC with the British team, …

Jenson Button is set to join Hertz Team JOTA for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in the team’s No. 38 Porsche 963 LMDh prototype in the Hypercar class.

This move will see Button going full-time to the FIA WEC with the British team, after the 2009 Formula 1 world champion’s one-off appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours this year as part of the NASCAR Garage 56 effort. It also adds to his recent Porsche LMDh drive with JDC-Miller at Petit Le Mans back in October.

Next season, Button will share the privately run No. 38 Porsche with Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen. He is the final JOTA driver to be revealed ahead of the season opener in March at Qatar after the team confirmed that Hanson, Rasmussen, Norman Nato, Callum Ilott and Will Stevens will all form part of its expanded two-car Hypercar effort.

As part of the drive, Button will head to Le Mans for his third start. Prior to running at La Sarthe in the Hendrick Motorsports-prepped Camaro ZL1 back in June, Button competed with SMP Racing in LMP1 back in 2018.

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Button has been increasingly focused on sports cars since his Le Mans run with the NASCAR Garage 56 team. Motorsport Images

“I’m thrilled to be racing with Hertz Team JOTA in the 2024 World Endurance Championship alongside my teammates Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson,” said Button. “Both already have a lot of experience in endurance racing and that is key. Endurance racing is about teamwork and there is no better team than Hertz Team JOTA to be taking on the big manufacturers in Hypercars. I’m already looking forward to the first race in Qatar but also know there’s a lot of work to be done so that we arrive prepared.”

Before the WEC season gets underway, Button will also compete at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January as a one-off appearance. In what will be his Rolex 24 debut, he will drive in WTR Andretti’s No. 40 Acura ARX-06 alongside Jordan Taylor, Louis Delétraz and Colton Herta.

“It’s an honor to have Jenson Button — a hugely successful driver across many racing disciplines — competing full-time in the WEC next year,” said Frédéric Lequien, FIA WEC CEO. “With nine manufacturers in the Hypercar category next year, including star names such as Jenson confirmed on the grid, everything is now in place for the WEC to have its most spectacular season yet.”