Ferrari dominates Qatar 1812Km WEC opener with 1-2-3 sweep

A year on from Porsche’s famous 1-2-3 finish in the 2024 running of the Qatar 1812Km, Ferrari and AF Corse achieved the same feat tonight under the floodlights with its trio of 499Ps to kick off the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

It was an astonishing result for the Italian marque, which benefitted from the challenges of its closest rivals on pace -- BMW and Cadillac -- faltering in the action-packed 10-hour race at the Lusail International Circuit.

Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen powered to victory from third on the grid in the No. 50, executing an effective tire strategy into the night as the temperature dropped. The 2024 Le Mans winning trio -- who started the race on medium tires -- spent much of the race running with Michelin hards on the left and medium rubber on the right.

"It's very important to start the season this way. Now we need to keep going," Molina said after capturing the historic result for Ferrari.

"Finally we got a win not at Le Mans -- what a way to start the season!" Nielsen added.

They were rapid throughout and recovered well from a spin in the opening half of the race caused by contact with the No. 15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, which cost the team a chunk of time.

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The No. 50 first took control of the race when Molina powered past Phil Hanson for the lead in the No. 83 privately entered 499P from AF Corse at Turn 1 with just over four hours remaining.

It wasn’t quite done and dusted though. In the ninth hour the car fell to second because its ninth stop for right-side tires and a driver change was 10 seconds slower than the No. 83. This dropped Fuoco behind the bright yellow challenger, forcing him to sit back and wait patiently before pouncing again.

Kubica held station until a tense round of final stops which saw multiple tyre strategies play out amongst the front-runners. However, Fuoco, on fresher tires, was able to retake the lead on his final service after a rapid in-lap a quicker stop. By pitting eight minutes later he saved seven seconds while refuelling and emerged from pit lane back in front. In the end, after managing a heavily worn front-left tire, he took the win by a margin of 2.3 seconds.

It wasn’t a win, but for the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari second place was a highly encouraging result for Yifei Ye, team debutant Hanson and Kubica. They were in contention throughout and came home in the runner-up spot after Kubica nursed the car home on worn tires having taken two fuel-only stops to end the race.

Ferrari’s second factory car, the No. 51, started from pole but had its plans for victory spoiled by two drive-through penalties for a VSC infringement and pit lane speeding. Salvaging a podium was an impressive achievement though. Alessandro Pier Guidi battled hard with Kubica for second in the closing laps but couldn't find a way past.

Just off the podium, the No. 15 WRT BMW came home fourth after the team opted for a fuel-only final stop to gain track position over the two Toyotas in the final hour. Had the No. 15 not suffered an electrical glitch which saw Kevin Magnussen drop like a stone after an early FCY restart, undergo a front clip change and been handed a drive-through for the tangle with the No. 50, it may have had a chance at glory.

Reigning manufacturers’ champion Toyota Gazoo Racing went into the race with low expectations. Its GR010 HYBRIDs lacked outright pace and the No. 8 qualified 17th, but a metronomic run saw it claim fifth and sixth.

The No. 20 BMW took seventh ahead of the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R which spent most of the race recovering from a dramatic incident with the sister car at a restart.

The British team's cars came together while sitting first and second after being helped out by the timing of the safety car period. Jenson Button in the No. 38 braked hard into Turn 15 as the safety car was peeling in, and a perhaps over-eager Alex Lynn in the No. 12 behind rear-ended him.

Both sustained heavy damage and needed to dive straight into the pit lane for new bodywork, handing the lead back to Ferrari. Lynn felt Button had brake-tested him but the stewards disagreed, handing the No. 12 a drive-through for the incident.

The No. 38, after repairs and an additional trip to the pit box to solve throttle issues, ended up finishing 16th. The No. 12, after serving its penalty, could only manage eighth.

12 months on from Porsche Penske Motorsport’s breakthrough win and dominant finish, it was a miserable outing for the German marque’s Hypercar factory team on its second visit to Lusail. Both cars lacked outright pace for the entire meeting and failed to feature at the sharp end.

The No. 5 car suffered an early slow puncture and a rear damper element repairs en route to 10th, while the sister No. 6 car -- which also needed to pit unexpectedly for a slow puncture -- lost time to a rear clip change and finished down in 11th.

It was also a tough day for both French OEMs. Alpine’s A424s looked quick but endured messy outings, finishing outside the points. And Peugeot’s 9X8s were largely anonymous aside from a few entertaining battles for positions in the mid-pack. The higher placed of the two LMH challengers ended up ninth. It was a far cry from the team’s head-turning performance with the previous-spec car in last year’s event.

As for the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries, it was a predictably challenging WEC debut.

The No. 009 limped home 23 laps down, after losing time to its passenger door blowing off in the opening hour and a vibration issue that needed time in the garage to investigate. The sister car fared no better, retiring after 181 laps with a transmission issue. Nevertheless, the team leaves Qatar having gathered a ton of data and experience and will aim to build on that when its IMSA crew makes its GTP debut next month in Sebring.

The TF Sport Corvette was up to the pressure from United Autosports' McLarens to win LMGT3. Julien Delfosse/DPPI photo

TF beats United in LMGT3 thriller

The LMGT3 class delivered a thrilling race too, with the top six positions occupied by cars from six manufacturers at the end. The lead battle raged on right to the end, with TF Sport's No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R winning the race from 13th on the grid.

Daniel Juncadella secured the result for himself, Ben Keating and WEC LMGT3 rookie Jonny Edgar with a defensive masterclass in the final hour.

The Spaniard was forced to keep a hard-charging Gregoire Saucy behind him after the final stops. Saucy made multiple attempts to get by, but the No. 59 McLaren crew were forced to settle for second having had race-winning pace all day.

"It was a lot of pressure. I didn't think I could hold him but I just focused on hitting my marks. I could see where he was stronger, he had a couple of chances to go for it but I think he was just unsure," Juncadella said.

The victory for TF was the Z06 GT3's first in WEC competition, and the car's second victory of 2025, after AWA won the GTD class at the Rolex 24 Hours back in January.

“I couldn’t have imagined this," Keating said after claiming his eighth WEC win. "Even if you look at the way the race unfolded, we didn’t have the speed to win it. We had to let others take themselves out of contention, and we’ll take it any way we can get it. We ran a clean race and a hard race. We did everything we could to stay up front.

"The last 30 minutes of Dani staying in front of the McLaren was just epic. To start 13th and end up in first place after 10 hours of hard racing is not easy. It’s great to have Keating Chevrolet in victory lane.”

On the other side of the lead battle, Saucy admitted to reporters after the race that he had nothing more to give.

"The pace was there. I was faster but he was so strong just where I had the chance to overtake," he said. "We know he is a strong driver, and it's only my second year in GTs. There's more for me to understand."

Completing the podium was The Bend WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo, which like the No. 33 started outside the top 10 and spent the race gradually climbing the standings. Timur Boguslavskiy was in at the end and led early in the tenth hour before taking a splash that cost him two places.

The top five was finished by the No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus, arguably the surprise package of the week, and the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari.

United's second McLaren, which started from pole position, looked odds on for a win on multiple occasions but fell to seventh after a drive-through for a pit stop infringement late in the race.

It was a forgettable outing for the two Manthey Porsches, which, according to Ryan Hardwick pre-race, were “down on power” all week. After the 911 GT3 R 992 won the opener last year with the title-winning Pure Rxcing team, both cars ended up outside the points and two laps down.

The 1st Phorm car came home 12th, behind the No. 46 WRT BMW which accrued multiple penalties for track limits and fell away, and ahead of the Iron Dames example.

Iron Lynx and Proton Competition also had a day to forget. Both Mercedes-AMGs hit trouble and only the No. 60 was still running at the end, though it wasn't classified after circulating nearly 100 laps down following a clutch issue.

As for Ford partner team Proton, the No. 88 finished 10th and the No. 77 succumbed to its second terminal fire in a week, when Bernardo Sousa was forced to park the Mustang with a smoke-filled cockpit after 148 laps.