WEC Fuji
Lynn was “desperate” to give Cadillac first WEC pole after near-misses
Cadillac finally got its first pole in the WEC at Fuji, courtesy of Alex Lynn
Gary Watkins
Published: Sep 14, 2024, 9:21 AM
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Pole sitter #2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Alex Lynn
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Fuji pole winner Alex Lynn has revealed that he was “desperate” to give Cadillac its first top spot in World Endurance Championship qualifying after a string of near-misses.
Lynn stated that he “really, really wanted the pole” after qualifying in the top four in the WEC’s Hypercar class every time out since the Spa round in May.
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“So many times we’ve missed out by a tenth or this or that; [there are] such fine margins,” said the Briton, who shares the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R with Earl Bamber.
“I feel personally that I have pushed the team really hard to look into the details and to find those micro-seconds. That is how you improve - marginal gains.”
Lynn, who sealed Caddy’s first WEC pole after finding nine tenths on his second push lap to get down to a 1m29.901s, revealed the two qualifying sessions on Saturday had been on “the knife-edge”.
He explained how he had been forced to make a tweak to the rear anti-roll bar after leaving the pits in the opening qualifying period, which he also topped, and then made a wrong call to abort his first flier in Hyperpole.
“We made some changes from Free Practice 3 to give me more front end [bite], but it was a bit more than I anticipated,” said Lynn. “I had to soften the rear rollbar to compensate and luckily it was enough.”
#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn
Photo by: Andreas Beil
Lynn backed off on his first push lap after encountering Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW and admitted that “in hindsight I wish I hadn’t”.
Asked if he was still confident that he could take the pole, Lynn said: “As long as no one improved. The engineer said [the time needed for pole] was a 28.9 and I thought, yep, I’ve got that in me.”
The Englishman described pole position ahead of Toyota on its home track as a “small victory that feels bigger than it is”. He added that it was good “to enjoy the small wins against opposition as strong as this” in Hypercar.
“Not a lot” was Lynn’s reply when asked what it would take to convert the pole into race victory in Sunday’s Fuji 6 Hours.
Cadillac was beaten to fourth place last time out in the WEC at Austin earlier this month by two Ferraris and a Toyota, but Lynn is confident that the V-Series.R will be a contender for victory in Japan.
“I think we are a bit faster than them on long-run pace, so hopefully depending on what they turn up with tomorrow we can be in the mix,” he explained.
The six-hour race at Fuji, the penultimate round of this year’s WEC, begins at 11:00 local time on Sunday.
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