Robert Kubica topped the first session of the 2025 FIA WEC Prologue at the Qatar International Circuit this afternoon in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P in a three hour session disrupted by a number of relatively brief red flags before a longer halt to proceedings was called to deal with a dramatic fire for the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3. .
Kubica’s best of 1:41.673 saw him three tenths clear of Will Stevens in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series R, these the only drivers under 1:42 in the session
Across the field in Hypercar it was tight with just over a second separating the top six cars in the session which included all three Ferraris, both Cadillacs and the #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor.
As a marker for the available pace that has seen significant eases taken in dissuading track limits violations with new gravel traps at nine different locations, pole time in Qatar was around 2 seconds faster in 2024.
The big headline in Hypercar, of course, is the addition of the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries to the field.
It was a pretty encouraging first session for the team, which completed over 100 laps across both of its cars, the #007 around 2 seconds off the fastest time in the session with the #009 a further second down as the team .
Many eyes are on Cadillac Hertz Team Jota too at this early stage of the season. The British team, in its first public appearance as General Motors’ service provider in the top class saw its pair of V-Series.Rs finish up second and 6th in the order, sandwiching the two factory Ferraris.
There were a number of red flags that briefly disrupted the running. Vista AF Corse’s Francois Heriau caused the first into the the gravel in the #55 296 GT3 with Claudio Schiavoni bringing out the second in the #60 Iron Lynx AMG GT3 before the #6 Penske Porsche stopped at Turn 6, causing the third
A significantly more serious issue hit the #77 Ford Mustang towards the end of the session after the Mustang suffered a significant fire with Ben Tuck at the wheel. The young British driver was able to escape unhurt but had to return to the burning car, the engine compartment fully alight, to assist Marshalls in removing the bonnet.
The car suffered heavy front-end fire damage with the paintwork blistered along the length of the drivers door.
The team were in the process of assessing the scale of damage when DSC called by post session – we’ll bring an update when we have more.
Ben Barnicoat topped the LM GT3 times in his #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus with a 1:55.862, the only sub 1:56 time of the session.
Next up was Dani Juncadella’s #33 TF Sport Corvette, around a quarter of a second back with the top three completed by the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon.
The second Lexus and the second Corvette completed the top 5 in the session.
