Le Mans winner Robert Kubica delivered Ferrari its fourth pole position of the FIA WEC season and the No. 83 crew its first, in a tricky Hyperpole shootout at COTA.
The Polish racer set a 1m57.655s as light rain came down across the circuit, particularly in the final sector, which made it greasy but not wet enough to make wet tires work. It was a lap that saw Kubica finish just 0.096s faster than the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, which made it a 1-2 in the session for the Italian brand.
It also earned Kubica and his teammates, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, an additional point, edging them slightly closer to the No. 51 crew in the standings.
“Conditions were different last year, but we executed well. Qualifying was good. We got it in a good window and that was enough for P1. We are happy, but tomorrow is complicated with six hours. But with another point, we take it!” Kubica, who won the WEC race in Austin last year with Ye and Robert Shwartzman, said post-session.
Jean-Eric Vergne ended up an encouraging third in the No. 93 Peugeot, and within a second of pole, along with the No. 6 Porsche and No. 50 Ferrari, which slotted in fourth and fifth.
Further down the order, the No. 99 Proton Porsche that topped qualifying after heroics from Nico Varrone took sixth. The No. 35 Alpine, No. 8 Toyota, No. 15 BMW (which was on a head-turning lap before Dries Vanthoor slid off track in Sector 3 late on) and No. 009 Aston Martin completed the classification in the final stage of qualifying.
Both Cadillacs and the No. 7 Toyota gambled in the qualifying session for the Hypercars. It was a gamble that failed despite the intermittent rain showers during the run. The three cars in question finished 16th, 17th, and 18th in the times. The No. 38 was the fastest of the three, but over 2s off the slowest of the cars on slicks.
“Horrible session for us,” admitted Dieter Gass, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s team principal. “The conditions were right between wet and dry tires. We know that, compared to the opposition, we struggle with tire warming, therefore we decided to commit to wets at one point in the session.
“Unfortunately, from that point onwards, the track seemed to improve slightly, which favored slick tires and put us down to the bottom of the classification. Not our day.”
Other key runners that failed to sneak into the top 10 include the No. 5 Penske Porsche, which will start P11, the No. 36 Alpine and No. 20 BMW.
