Key Prologue stats
Each session was led by a different marque in Hypercar, with Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche and BMW all setting benchmark times across the two days.
Of the fastest combined times 15 of the 18 cars posted their fastest times of the Prologue in Session 4 last night. The three cars that didn’t find speed in the final four-hour run were the pair of Penske Porsches and the #94 Peugeot.
The 10 fastest cars of the test (covering six different makes) all broke 1:40 and were separated by nine-tenths of a second.
Remarkably, five Hypercars bettered last year’s pole time – a 1:39.347 from Porsche. Both BMWs, both Cadillacs and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari all eclipsed it. On that basis, it will be interesting to see what Thursday’s Qualifying produces!
As for mileage, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 HYBRIDs completed the most laps in the top class. Across the four sessions, they toured the Lusail circuit 792 times.
Amongst the drivers, the man with the most mileage was Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse 499P, who completed 183 laps, 36 more than anyone else. That is almost four times more than Neel Jani, who completed just 47 laps in Proton’s Porsche. Jean-Eric Vergne came closest to Kubica’s total for Peugeot.
The Aston Martin Valkyries, the only brand new Hypercars in the field, completed 549 laps, interestingly, almost the exact figure in miles, as the race is in kilometres, 1812.
In LMGT3, three brands set a session-topping time. Lexus ran fastest on both Friday sessions, while Corvette and Ferrari split the fast times on Saturday. It was tight, as the top 12 cars (and 35 drivers) were separated by a single second in the combined ranking. Bottom of the times was the #77 Proton Ford Mustang, which missed three of the four sessions after its fire on Friday afternoon.
The only other cars to miss a session were the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin and the #87 AKKODIS ASP Lexus. Both missed the final session.
Unlike Hypercar, the 2024 pole time was not bettered during the Prologue in LMGT3. Simon Mann’s hot lap in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari yesterday was four-tenths off Tom Van Rompuy’s time in Hyperpole 12 months ago.
The quickest Bronze driver was TF Sport’s Ben Keating. The Texan set a 1:55.215, just over four-tenths off Mann’s benchmark in the #33 Corvette. 12 of the 18 Bronze-ranked racers ended up within a second.
Ryan Hardwick completed the most laps of anyone in the class, with 154 tours racked up over two days in the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche. The least, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Ben Tuck, whose first run was interrupted by the serious fire that engulfed the #77 Mustang after just seven laps.
Iron Lynx pounded out a strong total of laps with its new Mercedes-AMG GT3s, with both cars completing around 1,500 kilometres. Its fastest time came from Maxime Martin in the final session, a 1:55.571. His time was almost matched by the #61 car’s young Dutch driver, Lin Hodenius.
Busy off days for multiple teams
The 2025 FIA WEC Prologue didn’t run without incident and misfortune for some of the runners in both classes. While the off days to come before the race meeting begins are going to be busy for every team, with plenty of prep work and post-test analysis to be completed, the next three days are set to be particularly challenging for three outfits.
In Hypercar, Porsche’s staff back at Weissach are looking into the engine failure for the #6 963 on Friday.
Urs Kuratle, director of factory racing at Porsche, confirmed to reporters last night that the failure was the first ever for the 963 programme. The Penske-run team believes it has already diagnosed the issue, though it has sent the engine back to Weissach for further analysis, which should be completed before track action resumes next week.
Despite the interruption, he said that the team is happy with its performance. It managed to complete “perhaps 75 per cent” of its planned programme, with some positive results.
“We are happy with progress,” Kuratle continued. “While we are pushing for repeated success here, the field is now very tight. There is barely a single factory team, with the potential exception of the brand new Aston Martin effort, that you can count out.”
As for LMGT3, there’s a lot of work to be done in the Proton Competition and Racing Spirit of Leman garages. Proton’s #77 Mustang is being rebuilt from the bare frame after the car’s serious engine bay fire on Friday afternoon. After missing three whole sessions, the car is believed to be on track to make it out for Free Practice 1 on Wednesday.
Racing Spirit of Leman meanwhile, is having to repair the major front-end and side damage on its Vantage from Derek Debour’s off into the barriers yesterday. Like Proton, the team reports that it is confident it will be ready to go on Wednesday for FP1. The team is being supported by Prodrive/AMR, with elements on both the #10 and #27 crew engaged in the rebuild during the test.
As an aside, AKKODIS ASP’s #87 RC F LMGT3 didn’t make it out for the final session yesterday, but this is not a cause for concern. A team source told DSC today that there are no issues being worked on, it simply chose to use the time to work on the car.
Street Racers
In a departure from the norm the 2025 FIA WEC ‘Collective’ grid shot will not be held at the circuit, instead, on Monday, each team will take one of their cars to the nearby Lusail Boulevard downtown business and retail area for a shot to be composed on the city streets!
WEC TV line-up tweak
The FIA WEC TV on-air crew sees a minor tweak for the season opener.
The booth crew remains unchanged with Martin Haven leading the team alongside 2014 FIA WEC World Drivers Champion Anthony Davidson and DSC Editor Graham Goodwin
On pit lane, Bruce Jouanny returns but is joined in Qatar for the 10-hour opener by Alex Legouix.
Sounds of the Season
The FIA WEC social media channels feature an array of supporting content ahead of the season opener – including this audio ‘spotters guide’ to each of the different cars across Hypercar and LMGT3
Legends Assemble
Race week in Qatar is set to greet a number of notable figures to the paddock including F1 legend Rubens Barrichello, in support of his son Eduardo who debuts in the #10 LMGT3 Aston Martin of Racing Spirit of Leman.
Emanuele Pirro and Tom Kristensen are also due to be on-site and will lead the parade of Peter Auto Classic Endurance race cars ahead of their two-race programme on the support bill for the FIA WEC.
A 30-car grid of sports prototypes and GT cars from 1966 – 1981 will contest a pair of 30-minute races on Thursday and Friday, the cars ranging from classic Porsche 911 Carrera’s, a later Porsche 928 through to a gaggle of Lola Chevron and Ginetta sports prototypes.
Highlights are set to include a 1979 Ferrari 512 BBLM and a 1981 Porsche 935.
The paddock is set to also welcome samples of Prodrive’s Ferrari 550 Maranello and Porsche 911 GT1 Evo as part of a display.
