WEC News: Campbell Leads Calado in Opening Qatar Practice
Matt Campbell topped opening practice for the 2024 WEC season at Qatar today, lapping the circuit in 1m42.486s aboard the #5 Penske Porsche 963.
Campbell, who has moved from Penske’s IMSA GTP program 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.
Daniel Mancinelli slotted into fourth aboard the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, with Erwan Bastard rounding out the top five behind the wheel of the No. 777 D’station Racing machine.