Written by Owen Bradley
Antonio Fuoco led the No.50 Ferrari squad to victory in the 1812km of Qatar at the Lusail circuit. The Italian led a Ferrari 1-2-3, with Robert Kubica driving the Independently entered No.83 AF Corse to second place, with the second factory No.51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi completing the podium.
The No.51 Ferrari of James Calado maintained the lead of the race early on, as the No.15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, the freshly departed Haas F1 driver, made his debut for BMW in the WEC. However, after just over 20 laps, the BMW experienced a major problem, the pit limiter re-engaging for a long period of time, dropping Magnussen to the back of the field after needing to come back into the pits.
After the No.12 Hertz Team Jota Cadillac (HTJ Cadillac) and the sister No.38 HTJ Cadillac made their way through on the No.50 Ferrari to put both Cadillac's into podium contention, the race quickly found its' headline battle - Ferrari vs Cadillac.
Further behind at the back of the Hypercar field, the No.009 Aston Martin had the right-side door open up, eventually the door would fly off in the high speed triple right-hander of Turns 12, 13 and 14.
Many drivers would come into the pits after just over 30 laps gone, as both Aston Martin's began experiencing problems, particularly the No.009 which went multiple laps down due to the problem with the door.
In LMGT3, the No.87 Lexus would attempt a dive up the inside of the No.21 Ferrari into the tight left-hander of Turn 6. The Lexus failed to draw anywhere close to the Ferrari, sending the pair of them spinning around, with the No.46 WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi out wide.
The No.78 Lexus took the lead of LMGT3 early on, with both of the United Autosports' McLaren cars chasing the Lexus after losing their lead. Meanwhile, Rossi and teammates Ahmad Al-Harthy and Kelvin Van der Linde would drive the No.46 BMW back into podium contention after almost two hours of race time.
After a Safety Car period for debris, the No.38 HTJ Cadillac of Jenson Button led the race from the No.12 HTJ Cadillac of Alex Lynn. However, the pair would collide dramatically after Lynn's No.12 HTJ Cadillac smashed into the back of Button's No.38 HTJ Cadillac at Turn 15 on Lap 74.
Lynn claimed that Button had "brake-tested" the No.12 HTJ Cadillac, as the pair of them both immediately came into the pits for repairs. The No.38 HTJ Cadillac would especially need extensive repairs to the rear of the car, going a lap down after initially leading the race just a lap ago. The Safety Car would come out once again to clear the debris, as the Ferrari's took shape and led 1-2-3, with the No.51 Ferrari leading the trio.
Meanwhile, after the Ferrari's took the lead of the Hypercar class - the LMGT3 leaders would have a four-way battle featuring three different manufacturers. The No.78 Lexus would defend from the No.59 and No.95 McLaren duo from United Autosports, with Valentino Rossi at the wheel of the No.46 WRT BMW, eventually overtaking both McLaren's as Lexus continued to lead by a narrow margin.
The No.59 United Autosports McLaren would then come back through on Rossi's No.46 WRT BMW to take second place, as the 9-time MotoGP World Champion picked up a track limits warning.
The No.35 Alpine of Charles Milesi would attempt to make a double overtake on some LMGT3 lapped traffic, with the No.20 WRT BMW close behind. However, at the left-curving flat-out Turn 11, the Alpine would collide with both of the LMGT3 cars in a sort of "ping-pong" effect, hitting one car and bouncing into the path of the other, spinning out and picking up some damage to the front of the car.
With multiple Safety Cars for debris, the Ferrari's began battling one another for the race victory, with only one instruction - to keep it clean.
Things would get strategic, with the No.83 AF Corse of Kubica at one point leading ahead of the two factory Ferrari's, with Ferrari attempting to convince the F1 Canadian Grand Prix 2008 Winner to let the No.51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi past, which Kubica would not allow on track.
Eventually, due to the undercut from the No.51 Ferrari, Kubica and the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari would lose their lead, as the No.50 Ferrari chased after Kubica to make it a Factory Ferrari 1-2 finish.
Back to LMGT3, and the No.46 BMW would be hit with a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits, leaving the lead LMGT3 battle between both of the United Autosports McLaren's and the No.33 TF Sport Corvette, after the No.78 Lexus fell further behind, with the No.31 The Bend WRT BMW trying an alternative strategy to try and get on the podium.
The No.15 WRT BMW in Hypercar also tried an alternative strategy, not changing tyres in the final pit stop phase and subsequently gaining some time over the cars ahead. Eventually, the No.15 BMW would be driven over the line by Dries Vanthoor to claim an impressive recovery finish of fourth place after keeping their noses clean since the issues with the pit limiter in the first 20 laps dropped them to the back of the field.
Unfortunately, the No.007 Aston Martin Hypercar would retire from the race with just a couple of hours to go, with Aston Martin as a whole evidently needing to regroup after a thoroughly disappointing weekend of running in Qatar.
The No.8 and No.7 Toyota cars maintained a relatively quiet but consistent race, slowly but surely and strategically making their way through the field, with Sebastien Buemi in the No.8 Toyota having a phenomenal opening stint, the Swiss making his way through the field tidily in the opening few laps of the race. Both cars stayed out of trouble to the best of their ability, and eventually came over the line in 5th and 6th place to take a strong points finish.
The No.20 WRT BMW would be driven across the line by Robin Frijns, the Dutchman completing a relatively solid but overall disappointing performance for the No.20 BMW team who fell victim to some incidents on track and the Safety Car strategy choices that come with these incidents.
The No.12 HTJ Cadillac finish in 8th place after their hugely dramatic crash earlier on in the race, the debrief within HTJ Cadillac will likely be filled with disappointment and an overall question of - "What If?" as they were the only ones who had the genuine race pace to match the Ferrari's, and walk away with only a few points to show for their efforts.
The No.93 Peugeot would secure another points finish with 9th place, a strong lineup of Paul Di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne alongside Mikkel Jensen ensuring that the French manufacturer have a relatively strong opening to their season in amongst all of the chaos in both classes.
The No.5 Porsche Penske would round out the Top 10 after a hard-fought battle against the No.94 Peugeot of Loic Duval, the pair coming to blows multiple times, with Michael Christensen in the Porsche being forced to run off the circuit multiple times in the tight corners of Turns 8 and 9.
The No.94 Peugeot would then have to serve a drive-through penalty and cost them valuable time and perhaps a chance to put both Peugeot's inside the points-paying positions.
The reigning World Champions in the No.6 Porsche Penske finished in 11th place after a tough weekend, showing just how difficult the World Endurance Championship can be, as other experienced teams also come away from Round 1 of the 2025 season with nothing to show for it.
Alpine particularly, with both the No.35 and No.36 cars both in contention for a Top 10 position, slightly lacking the pace and ultimately failing to take final position points, and also therefore continuing their bizarre race form, with Mick Schumacher and the No.36 Alpine scoring a podium during the 6 Hours of Fuji 2024, and now unable to score points in Qatar 2025.
The No.009 Aston Martin team would finish the race which is arguably an achievement in of itself, however they were 11 laps down on the car in front, and 23 laps down on the race winning No.50 Ferrari. A woeful weekend for Aston Martin with both cars, means the British Manufacturer has a lot of work to do on the Valkyrie between now and April 20th for the 6 Hours of Imola.
However, it was a pure and complete Ferrari domination, with the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen controlling the race throughout, after the HTJ Cadillac's collided.
Robert Kubica scores his second podium in the WEC with the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari team, racing with Phillip Hanson and Yifei Ye, as the No.51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi round out the podium for the Scuderia Ferrari. There was some late race drama between Kubica and Pier Guidi, with the Italian almost passing Kubica during the dying laps of the race, to no avail.
The No.33 TF Sport Corvette team would take victory in the LMGT3 class, narrowly holding off the No.59 United Autosports McLaren, as the No.31 Bend Team WRT BMW completed the podium, performing a strong strategy which did carry them through to making the podium.
After multiple drive-through penalties, the No.46 WRT BMW would come home to finish in 11th place, as Kelvin Van der Linde picked up a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits. A thoroughly disappointing race for the No.46 crew who had at one point, been genuinely challenging for the LMGT3 class victory.
With the first round of eight, it appears that Ferrari are most certainly the favourites for this season, although there are a lot of races remaining, including arguably the most prestigious race in motorsport - the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, many teams including the reigning champions, did not perform to the best of their abilities this weekend, and will certainly be ready to challenge Ferrari at future races, with the next race well over an entire month away.
WEC Qatar 1812km Race Results - Hypercar Top 10
1st - No.50 Ferrari, Nielsen, Fuoco, Molina
2nd - No.83 Ferrari AF Corse, Kubica, Ye, Hanson
3rd - No.51 Ferrari, Giovinazzi, Calado, Pier Guidi
4th - No.15 WRT BMW, Magnussen, Vanthoor, Marciello
5th - No.8 Toyota, Buemi, Hartley, Hirawaka
6th - No.7 Toyota, Kobayashi, Conway, De Vries
7th - No.20 WRT BMW, Rast, Frijns, S Van Der Linde
8th - No.12 HTJ Cadillac, Lynn, Nato, Stevens
9th - No.93 Peugeot, Di Resta, Vergne, Jensen
10th - No.5 Porsche Penske, Jaminet, Christensen, Andlauer
WEC Qatar 1812km Race Results - LMGT3 Top 5
1st - No.33 TF Sport Corvette, Juncadella, Edgar, Keating
2nd - No.59 United Autosports McLaren, Saucy, Cottingham, Baud
3rd - No.31 Bend Team WRT BMW, Boguslavskiy, Shahin, Farfus
4th - No.78 Akkodis Lexus, Robin, Gehrsitz, Barnicoat
5th - No.21 Ferrari Vista AF Corse, Rovera, Mann, Heriau
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