Porsche Penske’s Matt Campbell was quickest in the first free practice session as part of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship Qatar season-opener.
Following the postponed Prologue, proceedings officially began for the Qatar 1812km, with a 90 minute free practice session at the Losail International Circuit, a new venue for the WEC.
Ahead of the 1812km race on Saturday 2 March, teams set about their preparations for the 10-hour race event.
The 19-strong Hypercar field was exceedingly tight, as Porsche factory and customer cars asserted their presence for the majority of the session.
Phil Hanson – a former LMP2 champion, the youngest Le Mans 24 Hours winner, and a renowned regular in United Autosports LMP2 machinery – is making his Hypercar debut in the #38 JOTA this week.
He began his IMSA Endurance Cup campaign with JDC Miller MotorSports during last month’s 24 Hours of Daytona, also in a Porsche 963.
Free practice, like testing, does not demand the fastest lap times, but instead a continuation of productive long runs in order to collect data about tyre degradation and race pace. The former will be critical aspect towards winning the season-opener.
A full-course yellow was deployed briefly before the halfway point, before eight minutes of green proceeded a red flag, possibly due to gravel on the circuit with the wind speed having picked up noticeably compared to pre-season testing.
Little over 20 minutes later, a second red flag period was declared. Before this, Porsche held the top-five Hypercar positions with the #83 and #51 Ferrari 499Ps jumping up the order during the closing phase.
A third red flag ended the session early, as Campbell set the quickest lap time in the #5 Porsche Penske 963 with a 1:42.486.
In second place was the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of James Calado, who set a 1:42.532, followed by the #6 Porsche Penske which was in third after Kevin Estre’s 1:42.593 time.
Fourth position was taken by Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, who was the only driver in the car during FP1, with a time of 1:42.962.
Harry Tincknell rounded off the top-five in the #99 Proton Competition 963 from a 1:43.026.
Meanwhile LMGT3 housed 18 cars which were piloted by eager drivers, keen to understand how far they could go with the racing lines they took.
This was demonstrated by three track limits warnings, which could be a deciding factor during the race if drivers pick up too many of them, and therefore start getting penalised.
Josh Caygill of the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo was the only to trigger a penalty, being a five-minute stop-and-go for abusing track limits.
Nico Pino was fastest in the LMGT3 field, having set a 1:55.824 in the #95 United Autosports McLaren.
Just him behind were both AF Corse Ferrari 296s, with the #55 entrant in second after a 1:55.983 by Alessio Rovera, and the #54 in third from a 1:56.069 set by Davide Rigon.
A 1:56.125 from Daniel Mancinelli put the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 in fourth, as the other #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin was in fifth place after Erwan Bastard completed a fastest time of 1:56.302.
FP2 will take place later in the day at 2.30pm GMT or 5.30pm local time.
