The race goes the distance
The Qatar Airways 1812 km of Qatar proved to be the second longest non-Le Mans round of the FIA WEC since its inception in 2012, only exceeded by the very first race in the Championship back in 2012.
The Qatar race ran to its full 335-lap length, and took just a few seconds shy of 9 hours and 56 minutes courtesy of a race interrupted by just two short Full Course Yellow periods.
There was no deployment during the race of the new-for-2024-Virtual Safety car process.
Lusail International became the first new circuit for ACO rules racing in the WEC since Mexico City in 2016 and the first new circuit for the WEC since Portimao in 2021.
New McLaren moniker
Qatar saw the WEC debuts of an entire 18-car LMGT3 class but also the debut of a new designation for one pair of cars, this the first race for United Autosport’s pair of McLarens.
With the launch of McLaren’s new 750S road car, the 720S is no longer a current model and McLaren. Whilst not re-homologating its current GT3 racer, it will henceforth be referring to it in official communications as the McLaren GT3 Evo.
Jouanny joins the TV crew
Bruce Jouanny made his first appearance as part of the WEC TV crew in Qatar, the ex-LMP1 and LMP2 racer pounding pit lane alongside Louise Becket who has been a near ever-present since the ILMC in 2011 with the exception of maternity leave after the birth of her beautiful daughter.
Louise is stepping back to focus on running the Loudspeaker talent Agency that she runs together with Gemma Scott. Lou though will be back with the team for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Jouanny raced at Le Mans three times in Courage and Pescarolo machinery, his last appearance in 2009 (pictured above) saw him share the grid with fellow WEC TV commentator Anthony Davidson.
More recently Jouanny has presented the French version of Top Gear and made his debut in the WEC paddock in co-presenting the Awards Ceremony at the Bahrain finale in 2023.
Classics in Qatar
Peter Auto’s Classic Endurance Racing series raced on the support card in Qatar with an array of fabulous 60s and 70s sportscars and some familiar faces in the paddock.
Era Motorsport brought a very special Ford DFV engined Chevron B27S, that last raced to 4th overall and a class win in the 1977 Targa Florio. Team Owner Kyle Tilley dominated the timesheets but would hit trouble in the race in a car geared to top out at c.192 mph.
Ralf Kelleners piloted a stunning Group 5 De Tomaso Pantera and in the pits one of the Lola T70s was being fettled by ex-United Autosports LMP2 Team Manager Trevor Foster.
Stewards kept busy
With a race featuring close to 30 WEC rookie drivers and a lot of new faces in pit lane it was perhaps not unexpected that Race Control and the Stewards would be kept busy.
Indeed across the race meeting there were 120 Stewards decision published with at least one posted for 32 of the 37 cars entered!
The notable ‘clean sheets’ came from both Penske Porsches, the #7 Toyota, #15 WRT BMW and a solo LMGT3 the #59 United Mclaren.
Stat Attack
The double class win for Porsche is the first time since Mexico City in 2017 that any manufacturer has claimed a pair of class wins.
Back then it was the #2 Porsche 919 of Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley taking the overall win with the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Matteo Cairoli taking the GTE AM victory.
Rather oddly, the three drivers and one team boss featured in the Mexico double now all represent different manufacturers with Bamber at Cadillac, Hartley at Toyota, Cairoli a Lamborghini factory driver and Christian Ried now running Fords!
The win for the #6 Porsche 963 was the first for the type in WEC and the first too for an LMDh-rules Hypercar in the World Championship.
Porsche became the fourth marque to score a Hypercar race victory after Toyota, Alpine and Ferrari, the second after Toyota scored a win in both Hypercar and LMP1.
Hertz Team Jota scored the best overall finish yet for a privately-entered Hypercar with second place for its #12 Porsche 963.
The double class win at Qatar was the ninth such result in WEC history, all nine have gone to Porsche with the previous eight all headlined by LMP1 Porsche 919s and backed up with four apiece in LM GTE Pro and LM GTE AM.
It was only the fourth race in WEC history that has seen the same marque lock out the overall podium with Audi scoring full factory 1,2,3s at Spa in both 2012 and 2013 and at Le Mans in 2012 too.
It was Porsche’s 18th overall win in the WEC, finally overhauling Audi’s total of 17 – Porsche now sits second in that order with Toyota sitting on 45.
It was a first overall win for both Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor with André Lotterer scoring his 11th, and his first since Spa in 2015! Estre adds his Qatar overall win to eight WEC class wins in GTE Pro whilst Vanthoor doubles up with only one previous class win – Le Mans in 2018.
All three drivers in the #92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche score their first WEC class wins, Klaus Bachler adding a win to a record with GTE AM podiums, Joel Sturm and Alex Malykhin score rare wins on a WEC debut!
Lusail International Circuit becomes the fourth different opening circuit of the FIA WEC after Sebring, Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps and becomes the 14th different circuit to host at least one WEC race across 13 countries.
Onwards to Imola
Imola will make it 15 different circuits on 21 April as the WEC circus pitches its Big Top in Italy.
After freighting delays to Qatar, the whole show is being air-freighted to Europe for Round 2.
