Hertz Team Jota tops delayed Prologue opener in Qatar

Hertz Team JOTA's No. 12 Porsche 963 ran fastest in the first session of the delayed 2024 FIA WEC Prologue in Qatar. Norman Nato set the pace, with a best time of 1m41.822 during his 29 laps in the car.

It was a quiet three hours on track. Due to the timetable revisions and delays caused by the freight issues last week, all teams were given the choice of running in either the opening session today or the fourth session tomorrow. This decision was made to prevent the teams with cars and equipment delivered late from losing track time to the teams that had cars arrive by air freight.

As a result, only 10 of the 37 cars elected to run in the first session, and only nine of those made it out.

JOTA's pair of 963s topped the times, though only three Hypercars took to the track. The other car that made use of the session was the No. 11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C, which set a 1:45.928 best time, four seconds off the No. 12 and 2.7 seconds off the No. 38 JOTA Porsche that slotted in second.

Of the three cars, the No. 12 completed the most laps, 61. Isotta meanwhile, could only manage 22. The car registered a gearbox alarm, so the team opted for a full systems check. It returned to the track in the final hour after around a 40-minute delay in the garage.

Gilles Duqueine, whose organisation is running the Tipo6-C this season, told RACER that he was pleasantly surprised with the best time from Jean-Karl Vernay in the session, as the team hasn't yet started working on set-up work.

The car that didn't set a time but was expected to go out, was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.

In LMGT3, six cars – all of which arrived at the circuit on time last week – made it out, with the TF Sport Corvettes, United Autosports McLarens and Lamborghinis from Iron Lynx and Iron Dames setting times.

The quickest of the six was the No. 59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO from United, with Brazilian racer Nicolas Costa topping the times in his first public appearance with the team. His best tour of the Lusail circuit was a 1:56.583 during the car's 57-lap stint.

The No. 59 didn't complete the most laps though, that title went to the No. 82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, which crossed the line 79 times in anger. It was a hugely valuable session for the British team, which in only its second test with its Z06s completed 132 laps across both its cars.

Its No. 81 Corvette was up to speed too, within a tenth of Costa's time in second. The No. 95 United McLaren, which completed the fewest laps (39), ended up third.

Testing continues with the second session (open to all cars) at 18:00 this evening. It's a long, 300-minute, open test under the floodlights.