A good starting position for Porsche at the six-hour race in Shanghai, the penultimate round of the sports car World Endurance Championship WEC: Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) posted the third quickest qualifying time in the GTE-Pro class at the wheel of their 911 RSR fielded by the Porsche AG Manthey Racing squad on the Formula 1 circuit in the Chinese metropolis of millions. This puts the pair on the second grid row for Saturday’s race. Their factory pilot colleagues Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Pilet (France) occupied the fifth grid spot in the second 911 RSR.
The qualifying in the WEC takes real teamwork. Two drivers must qualify one car for the race. The grid positions for the race are determined by the average of the two fastest timed qualifying laps of each of these drivers.
Marco Ujhasi, Product Manager 911 RSR: “We can be satisfied with this qualifying result. Third and fifth, that’s the “the best of the rest”. The Aston Martins dominated once again, as they have done all season. For us it’s a good starting position for the race – we couldn’t have done better today.”
Marc Lieb (#92): “The qualifying was a step forward. Our performance was decent, particularly after not being so good recently. I’m a little annoyed at myself because I made a minor mistake during my best lap and that cost me time. Afterwards, the tyres began to deteriorate.”
Richard Lietz (#92): “After all the changes we made following the practice session the car was really good in qualifying. From third place, everyone is very close. I’m feeling optimistic for the race. I hope we also find a good set-up and that we can maintain the tyres over the distance. And if we can manage a flawless race then we should be okay.”
Patrick Pilet (#91): “Our car was difficult to drive. The balance wasn’t perfect, so we need to work on this before the race. I’m convinced that we can make improvements. The race won’t be easy, as the track conditions can change very quickly depending on the temperature.”
Joerg Bergmeister (#91): “My two laps were okay, but I had slight oversteer from the very start. I hope we can get to grips with this in time for the race.