Vanthoor believes Kvyat incident cost BMW pole shot

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

BMW driver Dries Vanthoor believes a near-collision with Daniil Kvyat's Lamborghini in qualifying at Fuji cost the German manufacturer a real chance of a first pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Vanthoor placed the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in third place for the penultimate round of the season in Japan on Sunday, just 0.158 seconds off the pole mark set by Alex Lynn with his Cadillac in the Hyperpole.

However, the Belgian driver believes the gap was due to an on-track incident with Kvyat's Lamborghini SC63 as the pair entered the long right-hander, Turn 4, which he estimates cost him two tenths.

While Vanthoor was pleased to achieve the best qualifying result for BMW in the WEC, he wondered what would have been possible under different circumstances.

“It was just the wrong moment, the wrong time, and [Kvyat] “I went on the wrong side,” said Vanthoor. “I just had to go and lost two tenths because I was careful not to collide with him.”

“In hindsight, it's always easy to say what would have happened if you hadn't lost those two tenths. It was a good lap and we can be very happy with P3. But knowing that P1 or at least the first row would have been possible is of course a shame.”

Vanthoor added that his rear tires were “not so good” on his last attempt because he had to do an extra lap after the blockage.

Both Vanthoor and Kvyat approached race control, but no further action was taken.

In his speech before the verdict was announced, Vanthoor stressed the importance of consistent decision-making by the race management.

“For me it is important that we strictly adhere to these rules, because if we start to hinder everyone, the whole thing will be chaos,” said Vanthoor.

“It's sad, it's annoying. I'm just more annoyed and urge the FIA to stick to the rules and implement them consistently.”

Kvyat, for his part, is confident he did nothing wrong in the incident after securing ninth place on the grid, by far Lamborghini's best qualifying performance of the season.

“I did my best to get out of the way,” Kvyat recalled. “From my side, everything was fine.”

“Someone else might feel differently, but that’s life.”

Kvyat admits the first Lamborghini Hyperpole was “unexpected”

Kvyat beat several other favourites in the first part of qualifying on Saturday to secure Lamborghini's first Hyperpole place with the SC63, including two of the AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps and the second of the BMWs.

He then overtook Julien Andlauer's Proton Competition Porsche in Hyperpole to take ninth place for Sunday's Fuji race.

“It's great to tick that box,” said Kvyat of taking part in Hyperpole. “We did a good job in the free practice sessions to figure out which direction we needed to go with the car and everything seemed to fit well enough to get into the top ten, even if it was a bit unexpected.”

“If you had told me yesterday that we would be at Hyperpole, I would have laughed at you!

“It is a positive surprise, but there is still a lot to do as there have not been many changes [to the car].”

Pressed for further explanation on Lamborghini’s improvement in form, Kvyat replied: “Somehow our car has a very narrow window and it seems to have worked better here. I was able to complete the lap quite well and did a good lap in both sessions.

“I hope this is a motivational boost for everyone in the team. The car is still very raw. Imagine what will happen when we start putting the pieces together. [to the car] we need.”

Jamie Klein is Sportscar365's Asia editor. Japan-based Klein, who previously worked for Motorsport Network on the Motorsport.com and Autosport titles, covers the FIA World Endurance Championship and SUPER GT, among others.