The #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Nico Müller leads the Qatar 1812Km after a frantic first hour of racing to kick off the 2024 FIA WEC season.
Müller made up six places during the hour and took the lead with a bold move round the outside at Turn 1, 26 minutes into the race.
The pass was made on the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, which stormed to the front at Turn 1 at the start. Miguel Molina led the opening lap of the season after finding real traction and making a pass around the outside of the #12 JOTA Porsche, #7 Toyota and #5 pole-sitting Penske Porsche.
The lead gap now is 5.6 seconds, Müller edging away towards the end of the race’s first stint.
Behind, after the opening round of pit stops the #6 Penske Porsche is up to second from fifth and 4.7 seconds up the road from the sister #5 963 of Michael Christensen.
Outside the top three, the two HERTZ Team JOTA Porsches made a fine start to the race and sit fourth and fifth with the #12 leading the #38.
Toyota’s #7 GR010 HYBRID was swallowed up by the pack in the opening sequence of the race and now finds itself down to ninth behind the three AF Corse 499Ps. The #50 leads the trio of Ferraris after a slower stop cost the car valuable time and track position.
Further down the order, it’s been a from ideal start to life in the championship for Isotta Fraschini’s Tipo6-C. Jean-Karl Vernay stopped on the formation lap, dropping the car to the back for the start.
Isotta isn’t last in class though, as the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R has dropped like a stone. Contact for Alex Lynn at the start damaged the car’s front-left corner, dropping him from seventh to 19th by the end of the hour.
Lynn lost the rear at turn-in to Turn 1 after reportedly being hit from behind by the #38 JOTA Porsche. The snap caused him to hit the back of the #94 Peugeot of Paul Di Resta, who was sent spinning and eventually had to pit off sequence with a slow puncture.
The Cadillac is 90 seconds off the lead and last in class, after a nose change at its first stop.
In LMGT3, it’s the Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 LMGT3 R 992 that leads the way after Alex Malykhin fought his way to the front, muscling past pole-sitter Tom Van Rompuy’s #81 TF Sport Corvette 14 minutes into the race.
After the first round of pit stops, the #81 has dropped further down the order, down to sixth in class after a slower stop than the cars around it.
As a result, the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is up to second after a fighting first hour for Ian James, with the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Flohr back up to third after briefly falling back to fourth as James climbed the order.
The #46 Team WRT BMW of Ahmad Al Harthy has made real progress and is up to fourth, ahead of the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche following an eye-catching drive from Yasser Shahin who started outside the top 10.
Only of the 18 LMGT3s hit significant trouble in the hour, the #59 United Autosports McLaren multiple laps down after a long unscheduled stop to fix rear-end damage after an incident on Lap 1 for Nicolas Costa.
301 laps to go…
