Mathys Jaubert makes history for Genesis
Mathys Jaubert is the youngest pole sitter in WEC history after taking the #17 Genesis to the top spot. He told GT REPORT the pole reflects years of effort, building from the ground up and going through the Genesis Trajectory pipeline.
Despite this strong showing, the Frenchman said “pole doesn’t mean much in endurance racing, I think it’s one point, which I will happily take. But we are focused on tomorrow, on the race. Starting up front in a track that is difficult to overtake is helping the team, and benefits the traffic and tyre management.”
Hirakawa: “Toyota is prepared” for all conditions on Sunday
Ryo Hirakawa starts on the front row for a Toyota team fresh from its home win at Fuji. A Hypercar-only FP3 was very helpful for qualifying simulation, said the Japanese driver.
“I think we did a good job, the car was really fast. Unfortunately, the time wasn’t good enough for pole, but the front row is good enough for a nice race tomorrow.”
Rain would be uncharted territory for the team, but Toyota is prepared. “We’ve never driven this track in wet conditions before, so we need to find it step by step, but we should have good race pace, so even if it’s wet, we’ll have a chance tomorrow.”
Habsburg: Alpine is trying to “find a way to make the tyres last”
Ferdinand Habsburg described the weekend as amazing, even though the French outfit didn’t get the test experience its rivals had during the summer. The #35 Alpine starts on the second row of the grid.
“We got a little bit surprised by the actual degradation of the track. With the temperature not being so high, we are trying to find a way to make our tyres last instead of finding a balance. If the track is dry tomorrow like it was today, that’ll be important, but if it rained like crazy, it’ll not be very helpful.”
Without that test running, the team will lean on what it already knows. “We’ll just have to go with our past experience.”
Pourchaire: Peugeot 9×8 “very much different” from single seater experience
Peugeot’s Theo Pourchaire said he had some fun in qualifying, even with “the car’s lack of performance”.
“When you drive the car like this, light fuel load, new tyres full of grip, it’s fun. Unfortunately, Peugeot is far away and that’s not the fun part, so we’ll keep pushing and keep working on the car.” said the rookie. He also shared that it was great that he was able to try himself out in qualifying sessions, and would love to try out more Endurance racing in the future, but admits might be a bit difficult with his full-time ride in Formula E next season.
While the track is new to WEC, Pourchaire has driven around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya over the years in the junior ladders of single seaters. He told GT REPORT that compared to the other cars he’s driven previously, the Peugeot 9×8 “is very much different.”
“This is a heavier car, a bit more powerful than F2. I had quite a lot of fun with the F2 and F3 cars, but with the Hypercar it’s a bit different. Our performance overall is not great, which makes it a bit more difficult I guess.”
On the race tomorrow, Pourchaire said it should be fun “only if it rains, which looks like it’s going to, so fingers crossed.”
Sørensen, Tincknell: “Aston Martin is very quick in the wet”
Marco Sørensen said the team expected more after practice, but “nevertheless Alex (Riberas) did a good job” to just miss Hyperpole at a track that doesn’t suit the Valkyrie LMH.
“It’s been surprising today, the forecast said it was going to rain but it doesn’t look to be raining now. So I’m hoping the forecast is correct tomorrow. We’ve shown promising pace in the rain with this car before.”
THOR teammate Harry Tincknell told GT REPORT the car felt the same from practice to qualifying, but other teams improved quite a bit.
“We probably overshowed what we can do in practice, but we’ll make the most with the track. We know the car is very quick in the wet, all the weather forecast is saying it’s going to be wet tomorrow, so we’ll be doing our rain dance all night.”
Sheldon van der Linde: “We were struggling with the car for the whole weekend”
Sheldon van der Linde started the season with a win at the 6 Hours of Spa and a runner-up finish at Le Mans, but his side of the garage has struggled since, missing out on points at COTA and Fuji. The return to Europe hasn’t helped, and the #20 BMW starts P15.
“Well obviously qualifying wasn’t great. We were struggling with the car for the whole weekend already, so the race will be even more difficult because you can’t overtake here. Rain tomorrow might present our only chance to get to the front.
“We hope there’s chaos in the rain, without that it won’t be so easy.”
The Cadillac shares the Dallara platform and has fared far better here. Van der Linde suggested BMW’s low-drag configuration, aimed to perform at Le Mans, may be hurting the car at downforce-focused circuits.
Jack Aitken: “It’s a long race tomorrow, but track position is important”
Jack Aitken said the #38 Cadillac was aggressive and working well early in qualifying, but the car couldn’t get a good lap in the second session after being blocked by one of the Ferraris. The “frustrating end to the day” leaves them tenth, last of the Hyperpole drivers.
“It’s a long race tomorrow, but track position is important, so we’ll need to think about strategy options overnight. There will be a lot of degredation, giving us some good opportunities to make some places up the field.”
Alessandro Pier Guidi: Ferrari “needs to take every opportunity to improve our position.”
Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi said P5 and P6 was probably the best result Ferrari could’ve had in qualifying, but traffic meant his #51 car couldn’t join the #50 and the privateer #83 car in Hyperpole, and will start down in 14th instead after showing promising speed in practice. The team looking for a strong result after struggling in Fuji last time out.
“Tomorrow is going to be a long day. The weather won’t be stable and we need to take every opportunity to improve our position. Rain will create more tricky areas on the track, but a dry race implies high tyre degradation. So tyre management, pit stops and strategy will all be very important to optimise the race pace.”
