1812 km from Qatar – Porsche hat-trick, heartbreak for Peugeot

• While night had enveloped the Losail international circuit for several hours, a new day dawned in the world championship ofEndurance FIA.
• An LMDh has finally established itself in WEC with the victory without firing a shot Porsche 963 Penske Motorsport n°6 (Kevin Estre-André Lotterer-Laurens Vanthoor).
• However, it was the sister car, the No. 5 (Michael Christensen-Matt Campbell-Frédéric Makowiecki) which had started from pole 10 hours earlier.
• Overwhelmed by the Ferrari 499P n°50 at the start, the Porsche n°5 then slipped behind a Peugeot 9X8 n°93 (Mikkel Jensen-Jean-Eric Vergne-Nico Mueller) very lively, which led for several laps.
• The No. 6 took the lead from the second hour of the race and never let go of the controls until the checkered flag.
• The #9 8X93, which was its last official appearance without a rear wing, held on until the end to try to achieve the best result for the Lionesses since their return to the highest level of world endurance racing. Still second with two laps to go, the #93 was struck down by a technical problem while Vergne admirably held off two Porsches behind him. How cruel motorsport can be! The No. 93 is finally classified 7th. The sister car, number 94 (Paul Di Resta-Loïc duval-Stoffel Vandoorne) brings up the rear of the Hypercars (17th) after encountering battery problems.
• It's Porsche above all on the Hypercar podium with the second place of the customer 963 n°12 fielded by Hertz Team JOTA (Callum Ilott, Will Stevens, Norman Nato) and the third position of the second official Porsche, the n°5 starting from pole . Cadillac finishes at the foot of the podium with Sébastien's No. 2 V-Series.R Bourdais-Earl Bamber-Alex Lynn. This means that there is a Frenchman in all the Top 4 crews at Losail.
• Toyota and Ferrari, the two LMH leaders in the field last year, had a complicated start in Qatar.
• Never in the rhythm, except on a qualifying lap with Nyck de Vries, the GR010 – Hybrid n°7 and n°8, which carried 59 kilos of ballast as part of the Balance of Performance (BoP), finished far from the mark (6th and 10th)
• In the Italian clan, the drivers made penalizing errors at the start of the race. Superb at the start to take control on the outside of the first turn, Miguel Molina (499P n°50) suffered a drive-through after crossing the white line at the exit of the pits. The #50 finally finished 7th.
• On board the No. 51, James Calado found himself involved in contact with a McLaren GT3, which resulted in a spectacular detachment of the rear wing of the Italian Hypercar. The victorious car at Le Mans last year only finished 14th.
• The best ranked Ferrari is none other than the new 499P n°83 fielded by AF Corse in a yellow livery. Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, and Yifei Ye ranked 5th.
• Among the newcomers, Alpine fares best. the A424 n°35 of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Paul-Loup Chatin took an honest 9th place, the sister car n°36 (Nicolas lapierre-Mick Schumacher-Matthieu Vaxiviere finishing 13th.
• Disappointment for the BMW M Hybrid V8. The Hypercars from the propeller brand finished at the depths of the ranking, notably the n°15 (Dries Vanthoor-Raffaele Marciello-Marco Wittmann), which had to return to the pits to receive repairs in the last third of the race (16th ).
• Discreet debut also for the #63 Lamborghini SC63 (Daniil Kvyat-Edoardo Mortara-Mirko Bortolotti), which had to settle for 15th place for its big competition debut.
• Two retirements were noted in the premier Hypercar category. Petit Poucet Isotta Fraschini and his No. 6 Tipo-11 had to retire following a mechanical problem affecting the front suspension, just like the other JOTA Porsche, the No. 38 driven in particular by Jenson Button.

Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 n°92

Porsche also winner in LMGT3, Rossi at the foot of the podium

• The success was total for the German manufacturer, which also won the first race in the LMGT3 category in the WEC.
• After quickly taking the lead, the No. 911 Porsche 3 GT3 R LMGT92 (Aliaksandr Malykhin-Joel Sturm-Klaus Bachler) was never worried.
• It precedes theAston Martin Vantage GT3 n°27 from the Heart of Racing Team, and the other Aston, the n°77 fielded by D'Station Racing.
• Although it started in pole position, the No. 06 Corvette Z81R of TF Sport (Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade, and Charlie Eastwood) had to retire due to a technical problem.
• The No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F is the fourth and only other retirement from an intense and competitive opening race with barely 6 minutes of racing under Full Course Yellow.
• Next meeting in WEC: the 6 Hours of Imola (Italy) on April 21.