With roughly an hour left of the Qatar 1812km, the opening race of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season, Porsche’s Kevin Estre has well over a minute lead over his main rival, Mikkel Jensen for Peugeot.
The #6 Porsche 963 has been the car to beat for much of the race. Although the lead gap did come down to single digits between the #93 Peugeot and the Porsche, Estre has extended it to a minute and 20 seconds in the last hour or so.
Estre’s Porsche factory teammate Matt Campbell in third in the sister #5 Porsche, with the first of the customer Porsches fourth, Callum Ilott onboard the #12 JOTA Porsche, around a minute off Campbell.
Campbell qualified the car on pole and was started by Michael Christensen, but it hasn’t had the same amount of pace as the teamcar in the lead. Campbell, who has won the last two races he competed in at Daytona and Bathurst, made a rare mistake when he almost lost the rear end at one of Losail’s long medium speed corners, going off into the gravel, costing valuable time. The Aussie was able to recover and get back on track quickly, but the time loss will be hard to recover.
Fifth is Nyck de Vries in the first of the Toyotas, Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota GR010- Hybrid. The Japanese-German team has struggled for ultimate pace all race, not competing for a WEC win for the first time in many seasons.
In LMGT3, Klaus Bachler leads in the #92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3.R, with a lead of just over 20 seconds to Alex Riberas in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. The two cars have been battling for the lead for much of the race, with Riberas spinning at one point, while leading, helping Bachler to catch him.
Bachler duly did catch, and then pass, Riberas, and has since extended the gap out as the team’s pro drivers, in the pro-am class, battle for the win.
In third is Maxime Martin in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3, a lap down to the two leading LMGT3 cars. After qualifying only ninth, the team have made their way through, with a certain Valentino Rossi making his debut in WEC competition, and impressing with his pace and traffic management to the faster Hypercars. Martin and Rossi’s teammate Ahmad Al Harthy has also impressed, battling with pro drivers and holding his own.
Fourth in the other Aston Martin, #777 D’Station Aston Martin, with Marco Sorensen onboard, while fifth is the other WRT-run BMW, Augusto Farfus at the wheel of the #31 WRT BMW M4 GT3.
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