Campbell leads opening WEC practice for Porsche

Matt Campbell continued Porsche's fast start to the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship in Free Practice 1 at Qatar, lapping the circuit in 1m42.486s aboard the No. 5 Penske-run 963 to lead the session.

The Australian, 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 No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P after a late flyer from James Calado.

The Briton reeled off a 1m42.532s just before the session was red-flagged with three minutes remaining due to the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Raffaele Marciello stopping at Turn 2.

Calado's time split the two Penske Porsches. The No. 6 ended up third, a tenth off after Kevin Estre's best time.The Cadillac Racing V-Series.R ended up fourth, with the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche fifth.

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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 No. 8 Toyota ended up 11th, with a best time of 1m43.527s, while the No. 20 WRT M Hybrid V8 was the quickest of the new LMDh prototypes in the field, down in 13th.

LMGT3 was also topped by the team which set the best time during the Prologue test, United Autosports. Its No. 95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 finish up was marginally quicker than the two Vista AF Corse 296 GT3s which slotted in second and third, 0.159s and 0.245s off Nico Pino's 1m55.824s 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 1.840s (Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C) and 1.777s (No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus) off the pace 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 Lamborghini completed the fewest tours (27), while the No. 51 Ferrari managed the most, 45.

Next up on the schedule is Free Practice 2 at 5:30pm local time.

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