Ferrari Sweeps Podium in Dominant Qatar Performance

Photo: MPS Agency

Ferrari swept the podium in the opening round of the new FIA World Endurance Championship season in Qatar as the No. 50 crew of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen opened the new campaign with victory.

While the Prancing Horse looked to be a commanding position for most of the second half of the race, there was considerable uncertainty as to which of the three 499P crews would come out on top until the closing stages.

Robert Kubica had gained the advantage aboard the third-string No. 83 car at the penultimate round of stops as he didn’t take tires, resulting in a triple stint on the same rubber, while the No. 50 car took two fresh tires as Nielsen made way for Fuoco.

The No. 50 car then gained the advantage at the final stops as neither of the leading two Ferrari crews took tires, but with the No. 83 car needing a longer fuel stop.

While that gave Fuoco the advantage over Kubica, Alessandro Pier Guidi, who took over the No. 51 car from James Calado at the final round of stops and had two fresh tires equipped, began to close down on both.

Pier Guidi arrived on Kubica’s tail with a handful of laps to go, but couldn’t find a way through on the Polish driver, allowing Fuoco vital breathing space out front.

Fuoco crossed the finish line 2.3 seconds ahead of the No. 83 car, although the gap was above five seconds until the start of the final lap.

Best of the rest in fourth was the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and WEC debutant Kevin Magnussen, which gained the advantage over the two Toyotas in the final round of stops by virtue of not changing tires.

Toyota’s pair of GR010 Hybrids occupied fifth and sixth slots, with the No. 8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa overhauling the sister machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 car of Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato recovered from its early collision with the sister No. 38 machine to claim eighth place.

Completing the points-paying positions were Peugeot’s No. 93 and the best of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport entries, the No. 5 car, which finished a lap down after a spirited battle with the second of the 9X8s, which earned a drive-through penalty.

The No. 6 Porsche was one place behind in 11th on a tough day for the German marque.

Failing to score points entirely were Alpine, whose pair of A424s finished 13th and 14th, while Heart of Racing Team managed to get one of its two brand-new Aston Martin Valkyries, the No. 009 car, to the finish in 17th, 23 laps down.

The sister No. 007 car was the only Hypercar retirement due to a transmission issue.

An entertaining dice for LMGT3 honors was won by the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R as Dani Juncadella fended off Gregoire Saucy’s United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for a landmark victory.

Unlike last year’s inaugural running, the Qatar 1812km failed to go its full distance before hitting the ten-hour time limit, with 318 of the originally-scheduled 335 laps completed.