The 2024 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship can be said to have officially started with the first Prologue Session concluded in the afternoon in Qatar.
In Lusail, in reality, the opening 180 minutes of on-track activity available to the protagonists were only used by five teams, the only ones already ready with all the equipment to start rolling.
The others will come into action in the evening and will then race in Session 4 added to tomorrow's program to make up for lost time.
The fact is that among the Hypercars, just three cars hit the asphalt of the Middle Eastern track and it was Jota's Porsches that set the pace.
With 58 passes under its belt, the 963 LMDh #12 stands out in 1'41″822 thanks to Norman Nato, who spent more time in the car than his teammates Will Stevens and Callum Ilott, leading the #38 twin by 1″3. Rasmussen/Hanson/Button, author of a couple more rounds.
The Isotta Fraschini instead spent a lot of time in the pits for a gearbox check following a doubt found after the first three control laps carried out by Jean-Karl Vernay.
Everything sorted out by the men of Team Duqueine, the Frenchman returned, obtaining a 1'45″928 in XXX total laps, then handing over the Type 6 LMH-C to Carl Bennett for the finale, while Antonio Serravalle will debut on car #11 in the following session .
#59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: James Cottingham, Nicolas Costa, Gregoire Saucy
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Among the LMGT3s, Nicolas Costa set the record in 1'56″583 for the McLaren #59 of United Autosports shared with Cottingham/Saucy, just ahead of the Corvette #81 of the TF Sport of the Eastwood/Andrade/Van Rompuy trio.
The McLaren #95 of Pino/Caygill/Sato moved into third in the closing stages, trailing behind its rivals, overtaking the Lamborghini #85 of the Iron Dames Bovy/Gatting/Pin which was fourth, almost half a second behind the leaders.
The other TF Sport Corvette with Koizumi/Baud/Juncadella (#82) put together many laps (79), making his men spend a lot of time behind the wheel, especially the Japanese Bronze.
The ranking is completed by the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx driven by Cressoni/Perera/Schiavoni with 50 passes completed and the best 1″ clear of the record.
At the end, the Full Course Yellow situation was also simulated for a few minutes, before moving towards the conclusion.
Session 2 of the Prologue is scheduled from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm Italian time with all the protagonists in action.
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