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WEC Qatar: Campbell puts Porsche top in opening practice

Porsche took up where it left off in the pre-season Prologue when it topped the times in opening practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser in Qatar.

Matt Campbell was fastest in the #5 factory Porsche 963 LMDh in the 90-minute session as the German manufacturer maintained its monopoly of top spot in the timesheets at the Losail International Circuit since the start of the two-day pre-season test on Monday.

The Australian posted a 1m42.486s to end up fastest, though Ferrari diver James Calado ran him close after a series of improvements late in the session.

Calado jumped from third to second in the times with a 1m42.561s in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar to demote the second Porsche Penske Motorsport entry driven by Kevin Estre.

The Briton improved again to a 1m42.532s to end up less than five hundredths down on the Porsche in top spot.

Estre’s 1m42.695s was still good enough for third in the final FP1 classification ahead of Alex Lynn in the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R.

The Caddy driver improved to 1m42.962s as the clock counted down towards the end of the session.

The times were significantly slower than the best from the Prologue.

Source: Autosport

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