Ferrari on pole for the 1812 km of Qatar, Porsche behind

The first Hyperpole of the 2025 season of the WEC was uncertain until the very last moments. While Dries Vanthoor seemed to have done the hardest part at the wheel of the BMW M Hybrid V8 n°15, the Belgian was beaten at the last second by Antonio Giovinazzi. The Italian completed his final attempt in 1:38.359, allowing him to take pole position by 0.136 seconds.

Antonio Fuoco completed the podium at the wheel of the Ferrari No. 50, 0.333 seconds behind his compatriot. In great shape since the start of the Prologue, the Cadillacs will start this Friday at noon (French time) from fourth and fifth positions. Alpine et Peugeot each placed a car in the top 10, with Charles Milesi in ninth place for the arrowed A and Jean-Eric Vergne in tenth place for the Lion brand.

The qualifications offered their share of surprises with the early eliminations of the two Porsche officials, only 11th and 13th. The Peugeot n°94 (Stoffel Vandoorne) and theAlpine No. 36 (Mick Schumacher) were also eliminated in this first round. For their first session, Aston Martin avoided the pitfall of having both cars on the last row. Marco Sørensen had placed the #009 Valkyrie in 15th position, ahead of the #99 Proton Competition Porsche and the other Valkyrie, the #007 driven by Harry Tincknell, but the Dane ultimately saw his times cancelled for speeding in the parking lane. Spinning with the #XNUMX Toyota n ° 8, Brendon Hartley failed in last place.

McLaren scores a double in GT3

McLaren hit hard in the LMGT3 category by locking out the front row through Sean Gelael and Sébastien Baud. The Indonesian set the fastest time of the Hyperpole in 1:54.239 at the wheel of the #95, 0.239 seconds ahead of his French teammate. This is the British manufacturer's second pole position in WEC after the 8 Hours of Bahrain last year.

Joao Filipe / DPPI

Akkodis ASP confirmed its good week by placing the Lexus RC F n°78 in third position thanks to the young Finn Gehrsitz. A very good performance for the French team after a complicated first season in the World Championship.

The first phase of qualifying saw notable eliminations for the two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, those of Manthey 1st Phorm and the Iron Dames, as well as the Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Keating. The two Mercedes-AMG, unsurprisingly, closed the show in this session.

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