Matt Campbell continued Porsche’s fast start to the 2024 FIA WEC season in Free Practice 1 at Qatar today, lapping the circuit in 1:42.486 aboard the #5 963 to top the timing screens.
The Australian, who has moved from Penske’s IMSA GTP programme to join the WEC’s Hypercar ranks this year, ended up half a tenth faster than the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P after a late flyer from James Calado.
The Briton reeled off a 1:42.532 just before the session was red-flagged with three minutes remaining due to the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Raffaele Marciello stopping at Turn 2 after a spin.
Calado’s time split the two Penske Porsches. The #6 ended up third, a tenth off after Kevin Estre’s best time.
Outside the top three, the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R ended up fourth, with the #99 Proton Competition Porsche fifth.
While the times improved significantly during the session, Campbell’s best lap was two seconds off the quickest time from the Prologue test, which was set by his teammate Frederic Makowiecki.
Further down the order the reigning world champions in the #8 Toyota ended up 11th, with a best time of 1:43.527 while the #20 WRT M Hybrid V8 was the quickest of the new LMDh prototypes in the field down in 13th.
LMGT3 meanwhile was also topped by the team which set the best time during the Prologue test, United Autosports. Its #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 would finish up the running marginally quicker than the two Vista AF Corse 296 GT3s which slotted in second and third, 0.159 and 0.245 off Nico Pino’s 1:55.824 in the McLaren.
The two new Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3s completed the top five, ahead of the two WRT BMW M4 GT3s that would sit sixth and seventh, both cars lapping within six-tenths of the benchmark time.
It was close in both categories. In Hypercar the top 10 and in LMGT3 the top nine all lapped within a second of the best time. The slowest times from the two classes were 1.840 (Isotta Fraschini) and 1.777 (#78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus) off respectively.
There were no major dramas to report during the 90-minute session, in which all 37 cars took to the circuit completing at least 27 laps. The Iron Dames completed the fewest tours (27), while the #51 Ferrari managed the most, 45.
Next up on the schedule is Free Practice 2 at 17:30 local time.
