The No. 963 Porsche 6 will start the 6-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps from sixth place. In qualifying for the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season, Frenchman Kévin Estre was the fastest driver at the wheel of a hybrid prototype "Made in Flacht". His compatriot Frédéric Makowiecki qualified the sister car of Porsche Penske Motorsport for the fifth row of the grid. The customer team Hertz Team Jota impressed in the time chase in Belgium with seventh place.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team experienced disappointment in the 15-minute qualifying session at the Circuit Spa-Francorchamps. With an air temperature of 17 degrees Celsius and increasing cloud cover, almost all teams in the top hypercar class did not bring the Michelin tyres into the optimal operating window. The consequence was numerous spins and an accident of Brendon Hartley's Toyota, which resulted in an interruption. In the remaining twelve minutes after the restart, Kévin Estre improved at the wheel of the number 6 car on every lap, but in the end had to settle for sixth place. Frédéric Makowiecki was unable to beat the time of his second fast lap and remained in tenth place.

"The result doesn't look convincing on paper. We're still not where we want to be," Urs Kuratle sums up. Nevertheless, the Head of Factory Motorsport LMDh is positive about the upcoming third round of the season: "Qualifying is of little significance for the result in the race. We have to make sure that we continue to improve our set-up with a view to a consistent performance on Saturday. I am very pleased with the result of our customer team Hertz Team Jota. The crew is fielding their Porsche 963 for the very first time this weekend. Seventh place on the grid is a very strong result."

"We were hoping for a little more, but our car still lacks pace," explains Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. "The weather and track conditions were very changeable on the first two days. Under such conditions, it was difficult to work out an optimal setup. We still need to work on some improvements before race day. Let's see what we can achieve on Saturday in the six-hour race."

Customer squad Hertz Team Jota qualifies in seventh
place on debut Hertz Team Jota impressed in the first qualifying session with the Porsche 963 delivered last Friday. On his fastest lap of 2:02.907 minutes, Britain's Will Stevens was just over half a second slower than works driver Estre in car number 6. Not only with the result in qualifying, but also with the entire process this weekend," says Dieter Gass, Team Principal Hertz Team Jota. "We kept improving from session to session. It's just nice to experience. We're constantly learning and now we want to have a solid race – as few incidents as possible."

Best Porsche 911 RSR starts from second place in the GTE-Am category
In qualifying in the GTE-Am class, Sarah Bovy once again put in a strong performance at the wheel of the pink Porsche 911 RSR of Iron Dames. The Belgian local hero drove to second place on the grid at the very last second. Only one place behind was the American Ryan Hardwick in the identical car from Proton Competition. The nine-elevens of Dempsey-Proton Racing, GR Racing, Iron Lynx and Project1-AO Racing will start the race from tenth, eleventh, twelve and 14th respectively.

The third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will last six hours. The last race before the season highlight at Le Mans (10/11 June) gets underway on Saturday, 29 April at 12:45 local time.

As part of the FIA WEC weekend in Belgium, a new partner of Porsche Penske Motorsport was unveiled. The globally active Heller Group, headquartered in Nürtingen, Germany, develops and produces state-of-the-art CNC machine tools and manufacturing systems for machining. Heller combines the tradition and experience of a medium-sized family business with the holistic solution orientation of a global player and supports Porsche Penske Motorsport as Official Technology Partner.

Drivers' comments after qualifying
Kévin Estre (Porsche 963 #6): "It was okay. I drove my first laps on a dry track in qualifying. It wasn't that easy. The car was fine, but I didn't get everything perfect in every corner. In addition, I was missing some important information on our ad. Overall, I'm happy to have gotten into the rhythm a bit. That's important in terms of the race."

Frédéric Makowiecki (Porsche 963 #5): "Overall, it wasn't very impressive. Our car was tremendously difficult to drive. The vehicle's behaviour was always different from corner to corner. Under such conditions, you as a driver do not find sufficient confidence in the car. We have to take a close look at why that was. Hopefully we can move forward in the race."

Will Stevens (Porsche 963 #38): "The start of the first qualifying session with the Porsche 963 was, in a way, a jump into the deep end. But it was really very good. I was four or five seconds faster in the time chase than in all previous practice sessions. We hardly know the car so far. It was the first time we tried to push ourselves to the limit. That worked great. The result is a nice reward for our team, who are doing an incredibly good job this weekend. We will continue to learn and certainly continue to improve."

Ryan Hardwick (Porsche 911 RSR #88): "For me, this is the best qualifying result since I entered the FIA WEC. Third place on the grid for the first time on a difficult track like Spa-Francorchamps – just fantastic. Lap by lap, I learned more and more about how to drive here. The great result almost feels like a victory. Now I'm looking forward to the race with the well-prepared Porsche 911 RSR full of anticipation. Spa is now my favourite track!"

Results Qualifying
Hypercar class: 1. Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez (UK/J/ARG), Toyota #7, 2:090.812 minutes 2. Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen (I/E/DK), Ferrari #50, 2:00.836 minutes 3. Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi (I/UK/I), Ferrari #51, 2:00.973 minutes 6. Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor (F/D/B), Porsche 963 #6, 2:
02.306 minutes

7. Félix da Costa/Stevens/Ye (P/UK/CHN), #38 Porsche 963, 2:02.907 minutes 10. Cameron/Christensen/Makowieki (USA/DK/F), #5 Porsche 963, 2:03.650 Minutes

GTE-Am class: 1. Al Harthy/Dinan/Eastwood (OMN/USA/IRL), #25 Aston Martin, 2:17.216 minutes

2. Bovy/Gatting/Frey (B/DK/CH), Porsche 911 RSR #85, 2:
19.150 minutes 3. Hardwick/Robichon/Heylen (USA/CDN/), Porsche 911 RSR #88, 2:19.481 minutes 10. Ried/Pedersen/Andlauer (D/DK/F), Porsche 911 RSR #77, 2:21.247 minutes 11. Wainwright/Pera/Barker (UK/I/UK), Porsche 911 RSR #86, 2:22.469 minutes 12. Schiavoni/Cressoni/Picariello (I/I/B), Porsche 911 RSR #60, 2:23.097 minutes.

14. Hyett/Jeannette/Cairoli (USA/USA/I), Porsche 911 RSR #56, no lap time