Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 499P will start the opening race of the FIA World Endurance Championship season tomorrow in Qatar from pole position after Antonio Giovinazzi set a 1m38.359s at the end of the Hyperpole session.
The Italian, with a purple run through Sector 3, took the top spot by 0.136s, bettering last year’s pole lap from Porsche (1:39.347) in the process.
“We did an amazing job since the Prologue. The last lap was great for me, really on the limit — I gave it everything,” Giovinazzi said. “It’s a good position to start on a track that’s difficult to overtake on.
“In Hyperpole I was surprised how the wind changed. The car was more tricky to drive, but in the last lap everything came together, especially in the final sector,” Giovinazzi said. “After qualifying we had more temperature on the brakes, so it was only possible to do one prep lap. But then I saw that the tires were not ready at all. All the drivers around me were doing the same sequence, doing two prep laps. I was surprised on lap 1 how tricky the car was but with the wind changing every lap, and on lap 2 from Sector 1 I felt the car was better.”
His effort pushed the No. 15 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8 to second, after Dries Vanthoor sat on provisional pole until the final seconds. Despite missing out on pole, securing a front-row spot still represented a huge progress marker for the Belgian-flagged factory team.
The second row will be occupied by the No. 50 Ferrari that was driven by Antonio Fuoco and the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R that was steered by Alex Lynn. Adding to the British team’s strong start to life as a General Motors works team, Sebastien Bourdais completed the top five with a 1m39.036s.
The remaining spots in the top 10 were taken by the No. 20 BMW, No. 7 Toyota, No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, No. 35 Alpine and No. 93 Peugeot.
There were some major surprises in the first stage of Hypercar qualifying that decided the field for Hyperpole. The biggest headline was that neither Penske Porsche made it through. The No. 5 — which took pole last year — will start 11th after Julien Andlauer’s best efforts and the reigning drivers’ champions in the No. 6 will line up 13th.
“It’s been the gap we’ve seen all weekend since the Prologue,” Kevin Estre, who drove the No. 6, explained. “We’re struggling on one-lap pace — it looks like we are quite far off.”
The No. 8 Toyota also struggled mightily. Brendon Hartley failed to set a competitive time and ended up slowest with a best lap of 1m46.289s, 7.7 seconds off the top time in qualifying.
“It was a rough qualifying,” he admitted to RACER. “We’ve been feeling good on our side of the garage, though we don’t have the pace of some of our competitors. I felt confident but didn’t get enough temp into the tires and I bottomed and spun the car at Turn 15.
“I went for another attempt but there was no chance with the tires. Disappointed I made the mistake but I am confused how it happened. We need to move on. We don’t realistically have a podium chance, but we’re hoping to move forward and collect points.”
The Toyota’s issue meant the new Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries didn’t sit at the bottom of the timing screen, though the qualifying order has changed since Hyperpole ended. The No. 009 initially set the 15th-fastest time, however, after the session Marco Sorensen’s laps were deleted for speeding in pit lane. This promoted the No. 007 sister car to 16th ahead of the No. 8 Toyota, which was bumped up to 17th.
United Autosports locked out the front row in LMGT3 for McLaren with its pair of GT3 Evos. It’s the team’s second in a row after achieving the same feat in Bahrain last November.
The No. 95 GT3 Evo edged the No. 59 after rapid laps from Sean Gelael and Sebastien Baud respectively. The pole time from Gelael was a 1m54.239s, which was only just faster than last year’s 1m54.3s pole time from TF Sport and Tom Van Rompuy.
“It was a good lap, though I expected more grip,” Gelael said after scoring his first WEC pole. “It’s the first time I’ve done qualifying since my Formula 2 days so I’m a bit rusty, maybe! We’re really happy to get a 1-2 here — we worked so hard to deliver. We have a 10-hour race now and I’m excited.”
Baud ended up taking a front-row spot with a 1m54.478s, while WEC rookie Finn Gehrsitz, despite suffering a spin, did a remarkable job to put No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus third.
Further down the order, last-gasp flying laps from Francesco Castellacci and Clemens Schmid put the No. 54 Ferrari fourth and the No. 87 AKKODIS ASP Lexus sixth. The sister Vista Ferrari will start fifth.
The other cars that made it into the top 10 were the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, No. 46 WRT BMW, No. 81 TF Sport Corvette and No. 88 Proton Competition Mustang.
This was the debut for the new-for-2025 LMGT3 qualifying format, which sees the silver-graded driver take part in the Hyperpole shootout. Before that took place the bronze drivers all fought to get into the top 10. It was a hotly contested session which saw many key cars fail to make the cut.
The No. 92 1st Phorm Manthey Porsche of Ryan Hardwick missed out by a tenth and ended up 11th, the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette driven by Ben Keating will start 13th, the No. 31 The Bend WRT BMW was 14th fastest and the Iron Dames Porsche claimed 15th.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pair of new Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos were the slowest in the class in the German marque’s first-ever WEC qualifying appearance.
UP NEXT: The 2025 Qatar 1812KM is set to start tomorrow at 2:00pm local time.
