Kevin Estre of the #6 Porsche Penske 963 held the lead after three hours of the Qatar 1812 km, the season-opener for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.
After the heated opening hour, the race began to settle with drivers having to judge the compromise between performance and tyre management in what will be an estimated 335 laps/10 hours of racing in total.
Peugeot showcased as an unexpected force during the opening exchanges of the 10-hour enduro and continued to push in the pursuit to remain in the lead.
At the beginning of the second hour, the battle for P1 overall raged on as Peugeot’s #93 9X8 driver Nico Muller continued fending the top spot from Porsche Penske’s Michael Christensen.
Both Hypercar drivers were into the second part of their double-stint, ensuring their hard tyres would last amid their tense fight.
Misfortune struck for Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P after he payed a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the pit entry, and so dropped from P2 to P15 as a result.
On Lap 45, Christensen attacked Mueller into the outside of Turn 1 although did not make it stick as the #6 Porsche Penske driver ran onto the dust, thus giving no further grip.
Shortly after the duo’s fight eased, Muller ran slightly wide into T1 when lapping LMGT3 traffic, and so the #5 Porsche Penske 963 driver of Laurens Vanthoor took the opportunity for the lead.
Norman Nato in the #12 jumped into third ahead of Christenen, who was now struggling with wheel vibrations on his #6 Porsche.
United Autosports’ #59 driver James Cottingham made minor contact with the rear of the #51 Ferrari, which weakened the rear end of the 499P and the rearmost bodywork flew off of the scarlet red prototype machine.
Subsequently, the #51 of Pier Guidi pitted, but the team were not ready for him, and they rushed to replace the engine cover deck and rear end. The Italian driver joined two laps down and in last position.
A brief full-course-yellow period was deployed so that the marshals could retrieve the bodywork.
In the #93, Muller handed over the wheel to Mikkel Jensen, who was tasked with continuing the charge towards a second WEC podium for the French manufacturer.
Into the third hour of the race, a fight for 11th position broke out between WEC debutant and BMW driver Raffaele Marciello and Cadillac Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais.
The #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 was making its maiden appearance in the WEC’s Hypercar category, and fought with the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R intensely.
After two-hours and 40-minutes, Hypercar featured small but mighty battles across the 19-car field as only nine remained on the lead lap.
With the addition of LMGT3 traffic, an exciting fight continued between the #2 and the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, who was being challenged for sixth position by the blue Cadillac behind.
To his delight, Hartley held his position after he maintained strong pace in front of the Cadillac.
At the front of the field, Kevin Estre of the #6 Porsche Penske 963 held the lead, followed by Mikkel Jensen in the #93 Peugeot 9X8, and the #5 Porsche Penske pole-sitting driver of Matt Campbell.
Fourth position was taken by #12 JOTA Porsche 963 driver Will Stevens as the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye was in fifth place.
In LMGT3, Alex Malykhin in the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 extended his lead significantly from 20 to 30 seconds over second place.
Iron Dames’ Sarah Bovy kept her ground in sixth position in the #85 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2, ensuring the pole-sitting #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 driver Rui Andrade would not overtake.
Also, the #87 Akoddis ASP Lexus RC F of Esteban Masson had his sights on the pair in front of him.
At almost three hours of running, the pole-sitting #81 TF Sport Corvette – after suffering a spin into T1 – ended up stopping after the pit lane entrance due to a gearbox issue.
TF Sport mechanics pushed the Corvette back down to their pit box and was brought into the garage for the team to investigate closer.
At the three-hour mark, the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche of Joel Strum continued its dominant form in the class lead at under 20 seconds in front of the teammate #91 which was being driven by Morris Schuring.
In third position was the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, followed by Francesco Castellacci in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 and the sibling #55 AF Corse of Simon Mann.
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