Porsche achieved another historic victory by winning the 1812 Km of Qatar, the opening event of the 2024 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, adding it to the 24h of Daytona scheduled for the end of January.
It is the first success in the World Championship for an LMDh prototype, with the Weissach manufacturer not only taking the entire podium in the Hypercar Class and success among the privateers of the category, but also standing out in LMGT3 with the 911 GT3-R 992 .
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, leads at the start
Photo by: Shameem Fahath
HYPERCAR: trio 963, what a mockery Peugeot!
Without too many worries, the Porsche 963 #6 of Team Penske driven by Estre/Vanthoor/Lotterer went on to triumph with a masterfully conducted race avoiding problems.
The Balance of Performance certainly helped the German prototype, but it was also necessary to avoid mistakes, especially in the difficult traffic of the LMGT3s, which the aforementioned trio did until the checkered flag, once again giving Porsche the overall victory in the WEC that it was missing from the 6h of Austin in 2017 with the 919 LMP1.
Instead, Peugeot suffered a terrible prank, second until a couple of laps from the end and then seeing the 9X8 #93 of Vergne/Jensen/Muller slow down until the straight, without however crossing the finish line.
A disconsolate 'JEV' swung down from the 2023 version of Leone's LMH, which with the #94 of Di Resta/Vandoorne/Duval had fallen to the rear due to problems, bringing to a terrible conclusion the unfortunate story of this unrealistic prototype which will be replaced in Imola with the evolved version.
And so comes the second great joy for Porsche because the overtaking of Jota's 963 #12 driven by Ilott/Stevens/Nato is not only worth second place overall, but also first among the private Hypercar teams which increases the euphoria of the Porsche manufacturer. Weissach.
In third place, the official Porsche #5 of Campbell/Christensen/Makowiecki, which started from Pole and then dropped down the order due to vibrations at the rear which forced it to stop first, then attempted to recover and ended up right in the slipstream, attempted a final comeback. to Jota.
After an uphill start, with contact at the start and replacement of the nose, the Cadillac with great patience manages to recover up to fourth place, in a very solid performance by Lynn/Bamber/Bourdais on the V-Series.R #2 prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing, one lap away from the winners.
Ferrari's day that should immediately be put in the archives sees the best 499P being the new private #83 of AF Corse, which passes fifth across the finish line and second among the independent LMH teams. Ye/Kubica/Shwartzman fought to at least get to the Top5, but it was honestly impossible to do more than that, seeing themselves overtaken by Cadillac in the last hour.
This is because the Maranello cars, like the Toyotas, suffered a decidedly negative BoP, also added to the black day in which the official #50s of Molina/Fuoco/Nielsen and #51 of Calado/Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi encountered, at taken with penalties and incidents with lapped drivers which relegated them to 8th and 14th place respectively, counting the Peugeot #93 which was classified 7th.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo by: Erik Junius
Toyota, we were saying, have been shamefully penalized with excessive weight in order to interrupt their hegemony. Like it or not, the 'black-of-anger' color of the new livery is now justified because the GR010 Hybrids have never been able to compete on equal terms with the others and the result was seeing De Vries/Kobayashi/Conway finish sixth, with Hirakawa/Buemi/Hartley grabbing a tenth position which will have to give the championship organizers pause.
The Alpines' first outing brings points to the French manufacturer with ninth place for the A424 #35 of Habsburg/Chatin/Milesi, which ultimately makes the most of the diversified strategy compared to the #36 of Schumacher/Lapierre/Vaxiviere which finished 13th.
Out of the points is the Porsche #99 of Proton Competition in 11th position, third among the privateers behind the 499P #83, then the BMW #20 of Van Der Linde/Frijns/Rast (Team WRT).
It was a difficult debut, but also useful for gathering the first information for Lamborghini-Iron Lynx: the #63 SC63 of Kvyat/Bortolotti/Mortara finished 15th, 5 laps behind the top, but immediately admitting that the aim it wasn't to look for speed, but rather to get to know the category with a vehicle that will necessarily have to face a growth process, which however began without serious technical problems.
During the last hour, Jota's Porsche #38 with Button/Hanson/Rasmussen had to raise the white flag due to a technical problem, having performed well, also fighting for the podium, but then losing positions until the final breakdown.
However, the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH-C #11 managed by Team Duqueine was unable to complete the first race, having stopped after 157 laps due to a problem with the front suspension which the technicians of the French team and Michelotto were unable to fix safely in the 'immediate.
Among other things, the Frenchman was the only one of the Vernay/Serravalle/Bennett trio to have already done a lot with the vehicle built by Michelotto Engineering, so we will soon see how his young colleagues fared, as they did not disfigure themselves when they were been called into question.
#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler
Photo by: Shameem Fahath
LMGT3: Porsche stands out, Valentino comes close to the podium
Great joy also arrives in the LMGT3 Class for Porsche, capable of taking home the very first success of the new category with the 911 GT3-R 992 #92 prepared by Manthey Pure Rxcing and going on to triple the triumphs together with those in Hypercar.
Bachler/Sturm/Malykhin took the lead from the hands of the Aston Martin #27 of Heart Of Racing during the seventh hour and never relinquished it, extending it towards the end for a well-deserved triumph, while the Vantage drivers Riberas/Mancinelli /James are bitter about a narrowly missed opportunity.
With a very successful final strategy, the Aston Martin #777 of D'Station Racing (Sorensen/Bastard/Mateu) manages to steal the podium from the BMW #46 of Team WRT about which we must say a few words.
It was the debut in the WEC for Valentino Rossi, engaged with Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy; the latter carried out the first driving shifts and then handed over the steering wheel of the M4 #46 to the Belgian and the 'Doctor', who did not commit the slightest mistake and risked reaching the podium which was missed only at the last hour, but still leading to home a result worthy of real applause.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin
Photo by: Shameem Fahath
The other WRT BMW, the #31 driven by Farfus/Gelael/Leung, also lost a position in the closing stages at the hands of the Ferrari 296 #54 (Flohr/Castellacci/Rigon) of Vista AF Corse, which climbed fifth at the last minute .
The other car from Maranello marked with the #55 (Rovera/Mann/Heriau) is seventh, preceding the Lamborghini #85 of the Iron Dames Gatting/Pin/Bovy, which performed a somewhat difficult race.
The first outing in the series of the Ford Mustang GT3 managed by Proton Competition ended with a ninth place obtained by the #88 of Roda/Olsen/Pedersen, while the last place in the Top10 was taken by the Corvette #82 Juncadella/Baud/Koizumi ( TF Sport) to the detriment of the #77 Mustang of Barker/Robichon/Hardwick (Proton Competition) on a weekend where they ran very little in practice due to technical problems.
The Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx (Schiavoni/Cressoni/Perera) is unable to climb higher than 12th place, a very difficult race for the McLarens of United Autosports driven by Pino/Caygill/Sato (#95) and Costa/Cottingham/Saucy ( #59) struggling with penalties and problems, dropping to 14th and 15th place.
At the bottom of the ranking we find the Porsche #91 of Manthey EMA (Schuring/Shahin/Lietz) which was forced to return to the pits due to technical problems, then taking penalties after a contact with the Ferrari #83, and the Lexus #87 of Kimura/Masson/Lopez (Akkodis-ASP Team), hit several times by sanctions, and #78 of Robin/Boguslavskiy/Koizumi retired at the end.
Finally, the #81 Corvette was out, having started from Pole with the Van Rompuy/Andrade/Eastwood trio, but ran into an electronic problem with the gear selector that the TF Sport technicians were unable to fix.
#WEC #Qatar #Porsche #dominates #hattrick #Ferrari #5th
