Antonio Giovinazzi claimed pole position for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener, the Qatar 1812 km on 28 February.
The #51 Ferrari AF Corse driver narrowly beat BMW WRT and the other #50 factory-run Ferrari 499P to emerge fastest in the first qualifying of the year.
Excitement brewed into a thrilling first qualifying session of the year for the 18-strong Hypercar field.
It marked the second season for the Q1-Q2/Hyperpole qualifying format, where drivers had to get themselves into the top-10.
Unsurprisingly, the margins were close during an intense fight for the positions to proceed to Hyperpole.
Continuing their form from FP3, AF Corse appeared to be strong favourites for the first pole position of the season.
They took 1-2 in Q1 with their two factory Ferrari 499P LMHs separated by just 0.022 seconds.
Brendon Hartley had a significant moment where he spun around his #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid on a fast lap due to running out slightly wide on the curbs, thus designating him and the #8 crew last out of the 18 Hypercars for Friday’s race.
Meanwhile the #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH made it into the Hyperpole shoot-out owing to the efforts of Jean-Eric Vergne.
Antonio Fuoco had a moment when he went slightly wide into a corner, thus tripping his #50 Ferrari over the gravel trap, but continued without further drama.
BMW WRT splits two Ferrari 499Ps
Giovinazzi set a fastest lap time of 1:38.359 in the #51 Ferrari ahead of Dries Vanthoor’s #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, which was just 0.136 seconds behind.
Fuoco took third place in the #50 Ferrari with a 1:38.692 lap time, compared to Vanthoor’s 1:38.495.
JOTA, who are marking 25 years since the team was founded, finished in a valiant fourth and fifth placed-effort ahead of their first race with the Cadillac V-Series.R machinery.
Alex Lynn drove a 1:38.723 for the #12 Cadillac ahead of the team-mate #38 Cadillac driven by Sebastien Bourdais (1:39.036).
Robin Frijns finished sixth in the #20 BMW with a 1:39.146 as de Vries claimed seventh in the #7 Toyota after a 1:39.279.
Robert Kubica situated the #83 privateer-entered AF Corse Ferrari in eighth place (1:39.299), fronting #35 Alpine A424 driver Charles Milesi (1:39.506).
Vergne rounded out the top-10 in the #93 Peugeot after a 1:39.674 lap time.
Porsche Penske’s #5 963 finished in 11th from Julien Andlauer’s 1:39.946 ahead of the #94 Peugeot, Stoffel Vandoorne (1:40.032) and the #6 Porsche of Kevin Estre (1:40.363).
The #36 Alpine driver Mick Schumacher secured 14th place ahead of the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie driver Marco Sorensen.
Neel Jani took 16th for the #99 Porsche 963 Proton Competition team, followed by the #007 Aston Martin driver Harry Tincknell, as Hartley rounded out the grid of 18 Hypercars.
See the full qualifying results here. The race start will commence on Friday 28 February from 14:00 local time or 11:00 UTC.
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