Nicklas Nielsen led the Qatar 1812 km for Ferrari AF Corse after seven hours of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener.
As the race entered the sixth racing hour (out of 10), the second virtual safety car (and third safety car) was called after Nico Varrone oversteered his #99 Proton Porsche 963 Hypercar over the adjacent gravel trap thus sending some of his bodywork as track-side debris.
The race, at 49% humidity, resumed green flag running with 4-hours and 40-minutes remaining.
Phil Hanson held the lead in the yellow privateer-funded AF Corse Ferrari 499P ahead of the #50 factory-entered Ferrari piloted by Miguel Molina.
They ran 1-2 but only just ahead of a strong pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids, who made the most of the drama thus far to climb up the grid together.
Both leading Ferraris ran within a second of each other with Molina eager to pass Hanson.
After just four minutes, however, the race’s fourth SC was deployed after Bernado Soasa’s #77 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3 caught fire.
He stopped on the right-hand side at Turn 1 with heartbreak befalling the team who already had a chassis succumbed to fire damage during the Prologue.
On another restart, #8 Toyota driver Ryo Hirakawa fended off fourth place on Rene Rast’s #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar.
It was the contrary for Nyck de Vries behind the wheel of the #7 Toyota, who chased down Miguel Molina’s second-placed #50 Ferrari – a sustained fight which continued through the LMGT3 traffic the pair of drivers cut through.
The gaps eventually settled until Molina raced door-to-door on the main straight with Hanson’s #83 Ferrari, consequently taking the lead off him with an inside line into Turn 1 with a lapped #38 Cadillac V-Series.R (Sebastien Bourdais) aiding the situation for Molina.
Ferraris fight at the front, Toyotas turn on pressure
Into the seventh hour, the fight for second continued though it tasked Hanson with fending off de Vries, who was eagerly chasing down the #83 Ferrari in the same way he did with Molina.
Further back, a fight brewed for ninth place fronted by Peugeot – who have performed strongly so far and were notably denied victory last year when they ran out of fuel.
Kevin Magnussen in the #15 WRT BMW closed down on the rear of Malthe Jakobsen’s #94 Peugeot as Jean-Eric Vergne situated further ahead.
Magnussen turned on the pressure as Jakobsen worked tirelessly to use the LMGT3 traffic to his advantage, eventually relieved when Magnussen pitted and handed driving duties to Raffaele Marciello.
After seven hours, Nielsen led in the #50 Ferrari followed by Hanson in the #83 Ferrari.
Both Toyotas were in third and fourth, the #7 of de Vries followed by the #8 of Hirakawa – the latter GR010 having charged from the back of the Hypercar field and gained 13 places so far as Rene Rast occupied fifth place in the #20 WRT BMW.
McLaren lead on Corvette in LMGT3
Meanwhile in the LMGT3 class, United Autosports regular Marino Sato led the charge into the sixth hour at the wheel of the #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo.
Heart of Racing’s Mattia Drudi gave him pressure for the lead as the #27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 EVO fought for the lead.
Sato responded through building the gap over 2.5 seconds on the #27 Aston Martin, as the SC deployed for the #77 Ford’s mechanical failure bunched the LMGT3s together again.
On the restart, the lead fight continued with Sato once again tasked with putting on a defence in efforts to retain his lead.
It was a difficult day for Iron Lynx with having to retire the #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 from earlier on, as their remaining #60 entrant served as a way of gaining data during what was more of a test session instead of a competitive maiden outing for the Stuttgart manufacturer in the WEC.
Sato sought relief when Drudi served a drive-through penalty for an unsafe pit release.
From the top, Sato led ahead of Daniel Juncadella’s #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R and the #31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus.
Sebastien Baud continued a hardy effort in the #59 McLaren in fourth place ahead of Finn Gehrsitz’s #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3.
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