Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI
Ferrari swept the podium in the opening round of the new FIA World Endurance Championship season in Qatar as the No. 50 crew of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen opened the new campaign with victory.
While the Prancing Horse looked to be a commanding position for most of the second half of the race, there was considerable uncertainty as to which of the three 499P crews would come out on top until the closing stages.
Robert Kubica had gained the advantage aboard the third-string No. 83 car at the penultimate round of stops as he didn’t take tires, resulting in a triple stint on the same rubber, while the No. 50 car took two fresh tires as Nielsen made way for Fuoco.
The No. 50 car then gained the advantage at the final stops as neither of the leading two Ferrari crews took tires, but with the No. 83 car needing a longer fuel stop.
While that gave Fuoco the advantage over Kubica, Alessandro Pier Guidi, who took over the No. 51 car from James Calado at the final round of stops and had two fresh tires equipped, began to close down on both.
Pier Guidi arrived on Kubica’s tail with a handful of laps to go, but couldn’t find a way through on the Polish driver, allowing Fuoco vital breathing space out front.
Fuoco crossed the finish line 2.3 seconds ahead of the No. 83 car, although the gap was above five seconds until the start of the final lap.
Best of the rest in fourth was the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and WEC debutant Kevin Magnussen, which gained the advantage over the two Toyotas in the final round of stops by virtue of not changing tires.
Toyota’s pair of GR010 Hybrids occupied fifth and sixth slots, with the No. 8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa overhauling the sister machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries.
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 car of Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato recovered from its early collision with the sister No. 38 machine to claim eighth place.
Completing the points-paying positions were Peugeot’s No. 93 and the best of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport entries, the No. 5 car, which finished a lap down after a spirited battle with the second of the 9X8s, which earned a drive-through penalty.
The No. 6 Porsche was one place behind in 11th on a tough day for the German marque.
Failing to score points entirely were Alpine, whose pair of A424s finished 13th and 14th, while Heart of Racing Team managed to get one of its two brand-new Aston Martin Valkyries, the No. 009 car, to the finish in 17th, 23 laps down.
The sister No. 007 car was the only Hypercar retirement due to a transmission issue.
TF Sport Beats United Autosports to Thrilling LMGT3 Win
An entertaining dice for LMGT3 honors was won by the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R as Dani Juncadella fended off Gregoire Saucy’s United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for a landmark victory.
In the car he shared with WEC returnee Ben Keating and newcomer Jonny Edgar, Juncadella pipped the No. 95 United entry driven by Saucy, James Cottingham and Sebastien Baud by just 0.493 seconds.
The race boiled down to a straight fight between the No. 33 and No. 95 cars after the other major contender, the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, was handed a five-second stop-and-hold penalty for a technical infringement late in the penultimate hour.
At this point, Juncadella enjoyed a small lead over Saucy and looked to have the race under control, but with both cars on near-identical fuel strategies, Saucy went on the attack after his final stop, the pair spending the final 30 minutes nose-to-tail.
By outdueling Saucy, Juncadella delivered TF Sport and Corvette their first wins in the LMGT3 class, denying United and McLaren the chance to open their win account.
The final place on the podium went to the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin, as a late final splash allowed the trio to jump both the No. 87 Lexus and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
Ben Barnicoat, Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin fell just two tenths of a second shy of the final podium spot despite their penalty, while the Ferrari shared by Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau was just a further tenth back in fifth.
The pole-winning No. 95 United McLaren could only manage seventh at the finish behind the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
Neither of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos made it to the finish on the German marque’s WEC debut, with the No. 60 Iron Lynx car joining the No. 61 car that suffered an early off on the list of non-finishers after repeated trips to the garage.
Unlike last year’s inaugural running, the Qatar 1812km failed to go its full distance before hitting the ten-hour time limit, with 318 of the originally-scheduled 335 laps completed.
RESULTS: Qatar 1812km
