The Ferrari trio of 499P Hypercars topped the times at the Lusail International Circuit this afternoon in the final WEC practice session before Qualifying, which was held in overcast, drizzly conditions.
Antonio Giovinazzi briefly put the #51 quickest with an early banker, before his compatriot Antonio Fuoco edged him in the #50 sister Ferrari with a 1:39.484 as light rain fell over the track, dropping the 2023 Le Mans-winning crew to second.
Making it a 1-2-3 for the Ferrari was the #83 from AF Corse, which saw Robert Kubica set the car’s best time. With a 1:39.890 the Polish racer was the third and final driver to set a time below 1:40.
The top five was rounded out by the two Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.Rs, with the #38 slightly faster than the #12.
Further down the list, it was a pretty encouraging run for the #009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie. It ended up 11th with a 1:41.902, the quickest lap from the new Hypercar in practice this week and its first under 1:42.
Elsewhere Alpine Endurance Team’s #36 A424 received treatment from the mechanics with 15 minutes remaining, the car was up on high jacks in the garage with mechanics looking at the floor.
The two Toyotas ended up 12th and 17th, but the Japanese-flagged factory team wasn’t pushing for pace. It spent the session completing long tyre runs with its GR010 HYBRIDs as part of its race prep.
“We don’t look that competitive, similar to last year. It’s going to be tough, we’ll try to do well in Qualifying because it’s hard to overtake here. We came from Bahrain where degradation is very bad, here there is non, it’s not helping and our car doesn’t suit the track. We are trying to approach but it’s not going to be easy,” Sebastien Buemi explained to WEC TV. “We have to get the most out of the package.”
In LMGT3 Sean Gelael put in another strong hot lap for United Autosports to put the #95 McLaren GT3 Evo fastest in the class. His best time was a 1:54.569.
The other United McLaren set a quick time and ended up third, two-tenths off and fractionally slower than the #78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus which slotted in second and continues to look like a contender here in Qatar.
The #81 TF Sport took fourth with a late flyer from Charlie Eastwood that pushed the #87 Lexus to fifth.
TF’s #33 Corvette meanwhile, would sit outside the top 10 in the classification after suffering an off. Ben Keating brought out a full-course yellow 18 minutes into the 60-minute session after getting himself stranded in the gravel at Turn 2.
Thankfully no damage was done and once the car was recovered it continued, completing 21 laps before the end of the session.
Qualifying is up next for the teams. It is scheduled to get going at 17:00 local time in Qatar.
