Audi’s front-row lockout shows “new world” of potential

Porsche had to settle for second-row starting positions – a second off the pace of the leading Audi, which has increased its energy-recovery systems for this year.

“You can only say good for them, they did a good job,” said Jani. “Let’s wait and see what happens in the dry, still. I think what we can see here, even if they struggle tomorrow, there’s huge potential there.

“I think they’ve unlocked a whole new world with that car, and that’s what they proved today. They showed they have a car with a lot of potential.

“Last year Audi did a good job in the first races last year and then that pace didn’t survive. We don’t know if it will be like that again. But it won’t be a walkaway again this year."

Strategic error hampered Porsche’s laps

Jani believes Porsche hampered its own chances by sending the two 919 Hybrids out too close together.

“The first thing was the strategy was not ideal,” said Jani, who set provisional pole early on before the Audis blew his time away. “Both cars were close together and on my first lap I caught Mark [Webber in the #1 car] quite a bit.

“Then I gave a lap away to get a gap, but because I knew I only had two laps left, I knew I had to push hard. You never know with traffic.

“We were just too close, not good for me or him – because he doesn’t know if I’ll dive in. I don’t wanna dive in, but I’m losing some downforce behind him. It wasn’t ideal for sure.

“It was a decent laptime, but then the same thing happened on the second run. Same s**t, no? Just too close to each other.

“It was not like the #1 was so much slower, or we were quicker, it was just traffic – we didn’t help each other.

“The other thing, the track dried quicker than we all thought. In terms of how you use the tyres with your setup and so on, Audi maybe did a smarter move – we don’t really know.

“For sure, they made their car work.”