Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI
***Victory for the No. 50 Ferrari 499P in Friday’s Qatar 1812km was the fourth outright win in the FIA World Endurance for the Italian manufacturer, and the first for one of its factory cars in a race outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
***It marks a second win for all three drivers, Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina, following on from their triumph at La Sarthe last year.
***With the No. 83 AF Corse car finishing second and the No. 51 works entry third, Ferrari earned its first-ever sweep of the overall podium, and only the second in the Hypercar era following Porsche’s lockout of the top three in last year’s Qatar round. To further underline the Maranello brand’s dominance, all but nine of the 318 laps were led by a Ferrari, with Cadillac leading seven laps and Toyota the remaining two.
***James Calado admitted he wasn’t expecting to recover to third place after a succession of penalties for the No. 51 Ferrari that dropped it towards the bottom of the top ten at one stage. “It was tricky with ‘Giovi’ [Giovinazzi] in the car, I think he couldn’t hear anything on the radio, so there was not good communication, but sometimes these things happen,” Calado told Sportscar365. “We’ll come back at Imola. We showed what we had today in terms of pace.”
***Having also scored pole position with the No. 51 car, Ferrari earned a perfect 66 points in the manufacturers’ standings to give itself a healthy early lead of 31 points over BMW, whose cars finished fourth and seventh. Toyota is a further two points behind in third.
***It marks the first time Ferrari has led the Hypercar manufacturers’ standings since the inception of the 499P project.
***Ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen described fourth place on his WEC debut with BMW as a “satisfactory” result. “We had three Ferraris ahead, and they were clearly quicker,” the Dane told Sportscar365. “The car has been great, we made a big step from last year, so that’s positive. It’s been a real pleasure fighting for pole position and for the podium, I’m getting on well with the team and making a lot of progress.”
***Porsche LMDh director told reporters after Friday’s race that Ferrari “was definitely in a different league” as the two Porsche Penske Motorsport cars finished 10th and 11th, the German brand’s worst-ever result in the Hypercar era. Since the 2023 debut of the 963, the Weissach manufacturer had never failed to get a car in the top seven. Kuratle added: “We had no chance. Simple as that. It was not a completely zero-failure race, but all in all the drivers did a great job, the team as well. The speed was just not there.”
***The pair of factory-entered 963s endured several issues throughout the race, with the No. 5 car suffering an early puncture and later needing a rear damper adjustment. The sister No. 6 machine was also struck by a puncture that required a rear deck change.
***Alpine endured a difficult opening race, becoming the only manufacturer besides top-class debutants Aston Martin not to score points. Mick Schumacher explained that the No. 36 car struggled in the colder temperatures towards the end of the race, saying that “deeper analysis” is required to fully understand the issue.
***Schumacher told Sportscar365: “When the temperatures were alright, the car felt pretty good and we were able to keep up at least with the people around us. But the moment the temperatures dropped, you clearly saw a big drop in performance, also with the sister [No. 35] car. It seems like we have a little ussus that maybe goes a bit deeper than what the surface shows.”
***Aston Martin’s head of endurance Adam Carter was “encouraged” by the pace shown by the Heart of Racing Team-run Valkyries on the car’s race debut, as Tom Gamble posted a best lap for the British marque of 1:42.978 — just two tenths shy of the best lap recorded by an Alpine and three tenths behind the quickest Porsche.
***Carter said: “We knew this was going to be a ‘learning weekend’ for Valkyrie, and we’ve encountered some of the ‘teething issues’ you would associate with a new racing programme. That said, we have been encouraged by the race pace both cars showed during their stints. We saw plenty of indications throughout our time during the Prologue and the opening race that give us cause to believe we can be competitive as the season matures.”
***TF Sport trio Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating ensured that Corvette became the fifth different manufacturer to win in LMGT3 since the category’s inception last year following Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin and Ferrari. It marked the second win for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of 2025 following the GM brand’s triumph in the GTD class of the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.
***Juncadella and debutant Edgar become first-time winners in the WEC, while Keating scores an eighth triumph and his first since the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. TF meanwhile took a first in the WEC since the 2022 Fuji round, when it ran an Aston Martin Vantage GTE for Keating, Henrique Chaves and Marco Sorensen.
***The sister No. 81 TF Corvette of Tom van Rompuy, Charlie Eastwood and Rui Andrade was an early retirement due to a broken alternator shaft pulley.
***Despite missing a first win, McLaren still banked its best-ever LMGT3 result as the No. 59 United Autosports car finished second, the Anglo-American team having scored a best finish of third in last year’s Sao Paulo round, while Lexus significantly bettered its previous best WEC finish in fourth courtesy of the No. 78 Akkodis ASP car.
***The No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3 led a field-high 97 laps, dropping out of the fight for victory when it picked up a five-second stop-and-hold penalty for a power infringement, while the pole-winning No. 95 United McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that finished seventh led 87 laps and was also in the hunt for strong result until a drive-through for an unsafe release.
***Augusto Farfus described Team WRT’s third-place finish as “unexpected” as he and his teammates in the No. 31 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin completed the podium on the upgraded car’s WEC debut. Farfus told Sportscar365: “We were far from being the fastest on-track but we had a good strategy, we took advantage of the safety car, and we were one of the few cars not to get a drive-through, which helped a lot. I would have never said before the race P3 was possible, but here we are!”
***Aston Martin customer squad Racing Spirit of Leman scored two points for ninth in its first outing in the WEC with a clean run. “I think we maximized the speed we had,” Eduardo Barrichello commented. “The car has been great to drive and I think we did a great job as a group. I can’t say I am happy with the result, but it’s what we had today and we have to learn some of the mistakes we made.”
***Iron Lynx suffered a race to forget in its first outing with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The No. 61 car was retired after Christian Ried’s brake problem-induced spin, while the sister No. 60 machine suffered a clutch issue and then lost three hours while the gearbox was replaced. The car was running at the checkered flag but was not classified, having completed 194 laps, 93 fewer than the LMGT3 leaders.
***United Autosports’ Sean Gelael was the first recipient of the Goodyear Wingfoot Award in its new format, with the prize now awarded on the basis on fan voting rather than being decided by average stint pace as before. Gelael beat off competition from Ben Barnicoat, Arnold Robin and Ahmad Al Harthy.
***Four safety car periods and the same number of Full-Course Yellows over the course of the race were contributing factors in the Qatar 1812km falling short of its full distance by 17 laps before the time limit expired. Last year’s inaugural running saw the full 335 lap count achieved just minutes before the full ten-hour duration elapsed.
***The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship is the 6 Hours of Imola on April 18-20.
Davey Euwema contributed to this report
