By alley - Jun 12, 2014, 10:30 AM ET

LM24: Porsche serious about pole challenge

Porsche will make a bid for pole position in qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours this evening.

The German manufacturer, which is

on provisional pole from yesterday's disrupted first qualifying session

, has confirmed that starting from the front of the grid is one of its goals for its return to Le Mans with a front-running machine.

Porsche LMP1 vice president Fritz Enzinger said: "Absolutely we are going to go for pole. We know the race is going to be very tough for us in our first year back, so it is important to have a good qualifying."

Brendon Hartley, who set the fastest time for the #20 Porsche in Wednesday's qualifying session, said he expects the lap times to be much faster than his 3m23.157s effort that currently holds provisional pole.

"It was a pleasant surprise to see our names at the top," said Hartley, who believes a 3m20s lap is possible. "It's going to be much quicker tonight. Even on my in-lap yesterday I had set a faster sector time but I didn't get to complete it."

Porsche has consistently downplayed its hopes for the 919 Hybrid on its first assault on outright honours at Le Mans since 1998.

It has said that proving the new hybrid contender is competitive and getting to the end of the race are its aspirations. As things stand it sit 1-2 after Neel Jani ended up second in the other 919 – which suffered a hydraulic leak – with a time nearly eight tenths slower than Hartley's.

Alex Wurz was third fastest in the best of the Toyota TS040 HYBRIDs on a 3m25.313s, which was significantly slower than Anthony Davidson's best time of 3m23.652s for the Japanese marque during free practice on Wednesday afternoon.

Originally on Autosport.com