- Charlie Thornton
- Mar 6, 2025
- 8 min read
FIA World Endurance Championship - Qatar 1812 km - A Duel in the desert as Ferrari conquers chaos!
Season Thirteen of the FIA World Endurance Championship kicks off this week at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, for a ten hour battle in the desert which sees Ferrari dominate the podium celebrations.
WELCOME TO SEASON THIRTEEN!
Season thirteen of the FIA World Endurance Championship heads to the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, for the first round of the season with the Qatar 1812 km. A grid of thirty-six cars, split evenly with eighteen Hypercars, and eighteen LMGT3’s will blast around the desert track for ten hours of racing.
LMGT3 QUALIFYING
The World Endurance Championship roared back to life with an exhilarating LMGT3 qualifying session that set the stage for an intense Hyperpole showdown, with the early pace-setter being Ryan Hardwick in the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 992 LMGT3 R, laying down a 2:00.302 as times began filtering in. However, it didn’t take long before the other competitors began to push to limits further, with over five minutes remaining, the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette LMGT3.R driven by Tom van Rompuy surged to the top with a 1:56.603, only to be swiftly displaced by the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 driven by Ahmad Al Harthy with a 1:56.473. The times kept tumbling, and Darren Leung in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720s LMGT3 Evo stormed ahead with a 1:55.508, while Arnold Robin in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 came out on top, but ultimately the McLaren of Leung reclaimed pole with a 1:54.851.
LMGT3 HYPERPOLE
With the FIA-Silver rated drivers taking the wheel for Hyperpole, the fight for pole position was fierce. Valentino Rossi in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 initially looked set for glory, setting the fastest lap, but this was shortly deleted due to track limits, promoting Sean Gelael in the #95 United Autosports McLaren to pole. A McLaren front-row lockout as the #59 sister car slotted into P2.
The #78 Lexus managed its best qualifying result of third, while the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 qualified fourth, just in front of the sister #21 Ferrari. The sister #87 Lexus also achieved its best qualifying performance of sixth, while the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 Evo out-paced the #46 BMW, #81 Corvette and #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3.
HYPERCAR QUALIFYING
The Hypercar qualifying session was a rollercoaster, with multiple manufacturers exchanging blows at the top of the timesheets, with Nyck de Vries setting the early pace in the #7 Toyota GR010, but Stoffel Vandoorne in the #94 Peugeot quickly responded with a 1:45.374. The fight intensified as Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac, and BMW all took turns at the top, with the #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi stamping his authority with a blistering 1:38.587 in the closing minutes. Shockingly, none of the Porsche entries made it through to Hyperpole, a significant upset and disappointment for the German manufacturer.
HYPERCAR HYPERPOLE
The battle for the ultimate grid positions saw Alex Lynn in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry lay down the first benchmark of a 1:42.779, however it wasn’t long before Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Team WRT went quickest with a 1:38.495. As the final moments approached, Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari managed to sneak into P2, but it was Antonio Giovinazzi in the sister #51 Ferrari who sealed the deal with a blistering 1:38.359 to secure pole position.
Dries Vanthoor’s #15 BMW slotted in second, achieving the manufacturers first front row start, while the #38 Alpine slotted in fifth, and the #93 Peugeot started the race in tenth.
RACE
The race got underway and immediately action at the front of the Hypercar field saw Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 and Antonio Fuoco in the #50 fighting wheel-to-wheel for the lead of the race, while the LMGT3 battle saw an immediate shake-up, with Arnold Robin in the #78 Lexus surging to the front by lap four.
While the immediate race start was very clean, some early incidents set the tone for a chaotic race, when on lap seven the sister #87 Lexus sustained damage after contact with the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3, while a few laps later the #35 Alpine and #38 Jota Cadillac battled for fourth position, while also experiencing a close call while lapping one of the United Autosport McLaren 720s LMGT3 Evo’s. The #38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber unfortunately lost control and spun at turn one while attempting to pass safely.
The first full course yellow of the race occurred on lap twenty-three, for debris at turn one, and once the FCY was lifted, the #15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen struggled to disengage its limiter, causing the car to lose positions while fighting in the top ten.
As the laps were completed, by lap thirty-two, the door on the #009 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie came open after a pitstop with Marco Sørensen at the wheel, the car was subsequently given the black and orange flag in order to repair and fix this, and before long the door flew off the car in an extremely dramatic fashion, prompting the car to come into the pits and get it repaired.
On lap fifty-one, Sébastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota collided with the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari LMGT3 while attempting to lap the slower classes, cutting the track and side-swiping the Ferrari. Just a few laps later the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 started to show a hard fight for the lead of the LMGT3 class, where the Lexus got past Darren Leung in the #95 United Autosports McLaren for second position, and just a lap later, overtook the sister McLaren of James Cottingham, charging into the lead.
A virtual safety car was deployed for the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 who was stopped off track after spinning, and once the safety car was about to come in, drama struck as the two Cadillac’s from Hertz Team JOTA collided together while sitting first and second, forcing both cars to pit with some damage. In the dying moments of the first one-hundred laps, the #15 BMW Hypercar collided with the #50 Ferrari.
With one-hundred-and-twenty-three laps completed, there was another three-way battle for first in the LMGT3 class between the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus and the #59 United Autosports McLaren, which saw the #77 Mustang fending off the other two. On lap one-hundred-and-fifty-seven, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 went wide into the gravel off track, and shed a lot of bodywork and floor parts, which quickly prompted a virtual safety car due to debris.
Shockingly, in a similar turn of events to the 8 Hours of Bahrain finale in 2024, the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 pulled to the right-hand side after the pit exit, and the car was on fire and smoking the cockpit pretty heavily. Bernardo Sousa managed to get out of the car quickly, and got the bonnet cover off and the fire extinguished, this would however prompt the retirement of the car. The car experienced a similar issue during the Prologue sessions a week prior.
As the timer started to count down, instead of laps completed, with two hours and forty-six minutes to go, the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie became the first and only Hypercar retirement of the race. Meanwhile, with less than two hours to go, Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 struggled to pass the #94 Peugeot while battling, briefly going off track, but managed to get through just a few laps later.
With an hour and thirty-nine minutes to go, the #50 Ferrari pitted from the lead, but only took right-side tyres, and while this would not be the final pitstop for them, will definitely impact the way the rest of the race to the end goes. As the #50 Ferrari came out of the pits, the #83 Ferrari was catching quickly in second, and overtook the Ferrari swiftly.
Final pitstops for the Hypercar class came with fifty-two and forty-four minutes to go for the #83 and #50 Ferrari’s respectively. With just under ten minutes of the opening race to go, the battle for first in LMGT3 heated up between the #33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3 and the #59 United Autosports McLaren, eventually seeing the Corvette through to the lead in the dying moments. As the timer ticked over, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen crossed the line just 2.3 seconds ahead of the privateer #83 Ferrari of Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye, with the sister #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi just three-tenths behind, ending the race with an all-Ferrari podium.
BMW achieved an amazing result of fourth and seventh, with the #15 entry of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor finishing just over seven seconds behind the Ferrari’s. Toyota locked in fifth and sixth position, with the #8 entry of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa, which qualified in a dismal seventeenth position, finishing in fifth, ahead of the sister car. The JOTA Cadillac’s, which seemed extremely fast and consistent throughout the race before their shock incident, could only finish a highest of eighth with the #12 entry, after the #38 entry spent significant time in the garage, finishing eleven laps down.
Peugeot’s #93 entry finished in ninth, while the sister car ended up in twelfth, a strong start to the season. The other French manufacturer, Alpine, only managed thirteenth and fourteenth, even after both cars ran in the top ten at multiple points throughout the race. 2024 champions in Porsche start of with a disappointing run, only managing tenth and eleventh for the Penske outfit, while the #99 Proton Competition privateer Porsche 963 ended up fifteenth.
In LMGT3, Corvette beat McLaren by just four tenths at the line, while the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo finished a lap down in third position, with the sister #46 entry with Valentino Rossi ending up eleventh after a few penalties halted their progression. Lexus achieved their best finish in the World Endurance Championship of fourth place for the #78 entry of Ben Barnicoat, Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin, while the sister car retired in the early stages of the race.
Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren and Ford filled up the final points-paying positions in the top ten, while both Porsche 992 LMGT3 R’s finished twelfth and thirteenth, last and penultimate last, not the best way to start their title defense. LMGT3 saw five retirements, including both of the Mercedes-AMG’s, a Mustang, a Corvette and the previously aforementioned Lexus.
HYPERCAR MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
After the opening round of the championship, Ferrari lead the manufacturers’ championship with sixty-six points, thirty-one points over the BMWs, who are just two points ahead of Toyota. Cadillac, Peugeot and Porsche sit fourth, fifth and sixth, all with single-digit points due to only a single car from each manufacturer finishing in the points. Alpine and Aston Martin both sit on zero points, after a retirement for the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, and the Alpine’s and remaining Aston Martin failing to finish in the top ten.
FIA WORLD CUP FOR HYPERCAR TEAMS CHAMPIONSIP
The FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams has shrunk drastically for 2025, with only two entries eligible of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, and the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. After their second place overall finish, the #83 Ferrari receives thirty-eight points, and leads the Proton Porsche by eleven points.
LMGT3 TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIP
TF Sport’s #33 Corvette leads the championship with thirty-eight points, while the #59 United Autosport McLaren sits second with twenty-seven. The pole-sitting #95 sister McLaren sits in seventh position with ten points. The FIA World Endurance Championship does not utilise an LMGT3 manufacturers’ championship, only drivers and team standings.
FERRARI HEAD TO IMOLA IN CONTROL
With the opening round of the World Endurance Championship complete, Ferrari head to the next round at the 6 Hours of Imola with a strong iron-fist over the rest of the field, with BMW, Toyota and Cadillac left playing catch-up. The LMGT3 fight went right down to the wire, with the TF Sport Corvette securing a maiden victory for the marque in the new LMGT3 era. The 6 Hours of Imola will take place on the weekend of the 19th and 20th April.
The FIA World Endurance Championship is officially back, and if the Qatar 1812 km is anything to go by, we’re in for a wild season ahead!
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