Porsche sweep podium in Qatar opener after late heartbreak for Peugeot

Porsche cars filled the podium places at the Losail International Circuit in a changing of the guard for the first round of the 2024 World Endurance Championship.

It marked a change in fortunes for the entrant which achieved a best finish of third on its return to the series last year. Since then the 963 has been allowed a 5kg reduction in weight under the series’ Balance of Performance, as well as a 6kW increase in maximum power and 9Mj reduction in maximum stint energy.

Porsche’s clean sweep was only completed when the second-placed Peugeot 9X8 of Jean-Eric Vergne hit trouble on the penultimate lap of 335.

The number six works Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Vanthoor already looked certain of victory when Vergne hit trouble. His slump to seventh promoted the number 12 customer JOTA Porsche of Will Stevens, Callum Ilott and Norman Nato, and lifted the second works Porsche to the rostrum.

The third Porsche on the podium started the race from pole position, but immediately lost the advantage to a rocketship start from Ferrari driver Miguel Molina from fourth place. The number 50 car swept around the outside of Michael Christensen’s Porsche and Mike Conway in the number seven Toyota. Conway ran wide in the drama, falling to seventh.

However Molina’s lead proved short-lived. Though he rebuffed an attack from Christensen, that handed the initiative to Vergne’s team mate Nico Mueller. The Peugeot driver picked off Christensen, then drove around the outside of Molina at turn one to take the lead on lap 16.

From there things quickly soured for Ferrari. An early pit stop for Molina went awry when he crossed the pit lane entry line, incurring a drive-through penalty. Then James Calado in the sister works car tangled with James Cottingham’s GT3 McLaren at the 1hr 40 mark, losing its rear bodywork and triggering a Full Course Yellow.

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Peugeot lost the lead to the number six Porsche shortly after the two-hour mark when the number 93 car ran deep at the first corner while battling through traffic. From there they steadily took control of the 1,812 kilometre race.

Toyota talked down their chances pre-race. The BoP cut their power by 4KW while adding 9kg in weight, but giving them an extra 2MJ of stint energy. Although they got one of their cars on the front row, they never looked like regaining the positions they lost early on.

It was a tough day for the only team which beat Toyota to victory last year, too. The delays to the two works Ferrari promoted their new customer third car, which was the first 499P home.

The result therefore had a markedly different look to any of last year’s races. Outside the Porsche-filled podium, the sole Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Sebastien Bourdais took fourth, one lap behind. AF Corse’s yellow Ferrari 499P, driven by Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, came fifth.

Also on the same lap was the first of the Toyotas, shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. The Verge/Mueller/Mikkel Jensen Peugeot was also credited with 334 laps but, adding insult to injury, is under investigation for a technical infringement.

The number 50 Ferrari of early leader Molina and team mates Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen took eighth, followed by the first of the Alpines and the second Toyota. On their arrivals in the Hypercar class BMW achieved a best of 12th and the sole Lamborghini 15th.

Isotta Fraschini’s first race began unpromisingly when the car stopped on the main straight during the first of two formation laps. Jean-Karl Vernay was able to coax it into life and join the start, but having run off the pace it retired before half-distance.

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2024 WEC Qatar 1,812km result

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Laps
1	6	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	335
2	12	Hypercar	Hertz Team Jota	Porsche 963	William Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato	335
3	5	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	335
4	2	Hypercar	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Sebastien Bourdais	334
5	83	Hypercar	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye	334
6	7	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries	334
7	93	Hypercar	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne	334
8	50	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	333
9	35	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Paul-Loup Chatin/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi	333
10	8	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	333
11	99	Hypercar	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer	333
12	20	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast	332
13	36	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere	332
14	51	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	332
15	63	Hypercar	Lamborghini Iron Lynx	Lamborghini SC63	Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat	330
16	15	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann	327
17	94	Hypercar	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne	316
18	92	Hypercar	Manthey Purerxcing	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler	299
19	27	Hypercar	Heart Of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas	299
20	777	LMGT3	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen	298
21	46	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin	298
22	54	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	297
23	31	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus	297
24	55	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera	297
25	85	LMGT3	Iron Dames	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Sarah Bovy/Doriane Pin/Michelle Gatting	295
26	88	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen	294
27	82	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella	294
28	77	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker	293
29	60	LMGT3	Iron Lynx	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera	291
30	95	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato	284
31	59	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy	284
32	91	LMGT3	Manthey Ema	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz	284
33	87	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/Jose Maria Lopez	273
34	38	LMGT3	Hertz Team Jota	Porsche 963	Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen	309
35	78	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Arnold Robin/Timur Boguslavskiy/Kelvin Van Der Linde	249
36	81	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood	177
37	11	LMGT3	Isotta Fraschini	Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C	Antonio Serravalle/Carl Wattana Bennett/Jean-Karl Vernay	157

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