How Giovinazzi took pole at Qatar, plus Toyota and Porsche

Phil Oakley — 13 days ago

So, Ferrari's Antonio Giovinazzi took pole for the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener at Qatar. Great stuff, not entirely unexpected, although both Tim and I thought either Cadillac or BMW would take it.

But not so: Ferrari had the pace to took pole, the #51 crew's second pole in 24 months.

However, looking at some of the data, in two of out three sectors at Lusail International Circuit, Giovinazzi wasn't actually the quickest everywhere in Hyperpole. In fact, he was third quickest in both sector 1 and 2, regaining all that time in sector 3 to take pole.

As you can see from the track map above — I'm no designer, you can probably tell — D. Vanthoor was quickest in sector 1 in the all-important Hyperpole session. Giovinazzi was 0.072 off here, with his teammate and countryman Antonio Fuoco, in the sister #50 car, in-between, 0.031 off the BMW driver.

Going into sector 2, Alex Lynn was fastest, with Giovinazzi 0.049 slower than the Briton. In this case, D. Vanthoor was in-between, 0.010 faster than Giovinazzi, making him 0.039 slower than Lynn.

Giovinazzi then regained that time in sector 3, 0.114 faster than D. Vanthoor and almost two tenths faster than Fuoco. Lynn was 0.369 off in sector 3, losing the time he'd gained in sector 2 as the quickest driver through that sector.

'Starting from the front tomorrow here in Qatar is the result of the great teamwork we have done in recent days,' said Giovinazzi after qualifying and Hyperpole.

'I am thrilled and want to thank all my teammates and the team. In qualifying, I put together a strong lap, but I knew the challenge would be really tough in the decisive Hyperpole session, where I managed to improve and secure this fantastic result.

Giovinazzi was delighted with his pole position. Image: Ferrari

'We have an excellent car, and starting first and third is undoubtedly important, but the race will be very demanding, and we need to execute everything perfectly.'

What happened to Toyota and Porsche?

Toyota, the current world manufacturers' champions, have been struggling at Qatar, same as they did last year. Porsche, whose #6 crew of Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor are the world drivers' champions (alongside Andre Lotterer) too have been struggling.

Toyota and Porsche are struggling a bit at Qatar, but the race may change their fortunes. Images: DPPI (left) and Juergen Tap / Porsche (right)

Out of the four cars these two powerhouse teams have, only one made it through to Hyperpole, the #7 Toyota in the hands of Nyck de Vries.

So, what happened?

Well, it's hard to say. There's no obvious place where either were losing time in qualifying... it seems they are just lacking pace at Lusail. Take a look at the diagrams below. We've taken the #6 Porsche's best qualifying sectors, and the #7 Toyota's Hyperpole sectors, to try and form a picture around this.

In the case of Porsche, it seems Estre lost the largest amount of time in sector 3. Although, in sectors 1 and 2 he lost almost a second, 0.984. His overall lap was +1.776 slower than the qualifying lap of Giovinazzi in the first session, with the optimal slightly quicker.

And, for de Vries in the #7 Toyota, he lost the most time in sector 1, but like Estre, if you add up the other sectors he lost more in those combined than he did in sector 1. De Vries's optimal lap was also his overall best in Hyperpole, but he couldn't match Giovinazzi, more than a second off.

So, a bit of a mixed bag. Our analysis revealed yesterday Porsche's race pace might be better than the single lap pace, so they could move up into the points by the end of a long 10 hour race. Toyota are maybe struggling more, so don't expect miracles there, although having got into Hyperpole, de Vries is at least starting ahead of the two Porsches.

The same cannot be said for Brendon Hartley, who qualified the #8 Toyota and had a torrid time of it. Both of the brand new Aston Martin Valkyries qualified in front of him — not good for Toyota.

But like Sean Gelael said after LMGT3 qualifying — for a 10 hour race, qualifying is just show. The race is the thing that matters. And we can't wait!

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