Porsche continues its journey undisturbed at the 1812 Km of Qatar, the first event of the 2024 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship which has entered the last two hours of the race, with the sun set and artificial lights illuminating the Lusail track.
In the Hypercar Class it is still the 963 #6 of Team Penske that dictates the pace with a wide margin over the excellent Peugeot #93, which seems to hold on in second place with Jota's Porsche #12 behind it.
The Porsche-Penske #5 travels in fifth place with a different strategy after the vibrations at the rear that forced it to stop early, sliding backwards. Matt Campbell stood out in the final hour for a good duel against Jenson Button's #38 Porsche-Jota to at least grab the Top5.
The AF Corse Ferrari #83 had instead inserted itself between the two 963s of the English team, overtaking the #38 and despite being 2 laps behind the top, it is currently the only one that could bring a smile to Maranello, given that the two official I'm behind. Among other things, the yellow LMH had to change the rear part after a contact with the Porsche #91 in a lapping and will now try the final attack with Yifei Ye ready to face a triple stint.
Toyota defends itself as best it can with the GR010 #7 seventh, followed by Cadillac – which has a different strategy so it could get ahead of the two aforementioned – and by Alpine #35 which is hoping for a Top10, which Ferrari will try to get to #50.
Eleventh place goes to the Porsche #99 of Proton Competition with the Alpine #36, the Toyota #8 and the pair of BMWs behind them, with the Ferrari #51 behind them.
The Lamborghini SC63 made a somewhat agitated stop in the seventh hour to check the rear mechanics, then restarted and currently continues its solitary race in 17th place, as the Peugeot #94 is back in action with a 20 lap lead from the top after the problems, while the Isotta Fraschini was forced to raise the white flag due to a problem with the front suspension attachment which the Duqueine/Michelotto technicians preferred not to fix with a sort of emergency intervention.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In the LMGT3 Class, the duel is very lively with the Porsche of Manthey Pure Rxcing #92 fighting for the lead against the Aston Martin #27 of Heart of Racing, which lost the lead due to a spin by Alex Riberas in the seventh hour, leaving the way open for the 911, now about ten seconds away.
Further back, the BMW #46 of WRT rose to third place, once again with Valentino Rossi, now alternating with Maxime Martin in an attempt to conquer the last step of the podium, even if the Aston Martin #777 is threatening behind. of D'Station Racing, which managed to take fourth place, pulling the BMW #31 of WRT behind it.
The Ferrari 296 #54 and #55 of Vista AF Corse dropped to sixth and seventh position, losing some contact with their rivals, although now we will focus mainly on the PRO drivers to recover ground, with Alessio Rovera for example who had achieved previously the record lap of the category with the second.
The #85 Lamborghini of the Iron Dames remains eighth, a couple of laps behind the Ferraris, but with a good margin over the #82 Corvette of TF Sport and the #88 Ford Mustang of Proton Competition, last of the Top10.
The best of the Akkodis-ASP Lexus is the #78, but watch out for the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx (13th) which could move up with a bit of luck now that it will be the Cressoni/Perera duo behind the wheel, while the McLaren by United Autosports.
However, the #81 Corvette that started from Pole was out.
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