Ferrari Dominates World Endurance Opener
Red And Yellow To The Fore in Ferrari Qatar WEC 1-2-3
Ferrari utterly dominated the 2025 World Endurance Championship season opener with a dramatic 499P 1-2-3 clean sweep under the lights of the Qatar 1812 on Friday evening. While the red and yellow cars in reality simply outpaced the rest, Ferrari’s rivals also capitulated to ultimately see the Maranello cars win their first sprint race at ease outside of their double Le Mans successes.
The action-packed race finally ended at its 10 Hour cut off after countless safety car periods at the Lusail Circuit prevented it from coming anywhere near its 1812 km distance before that time. The 1812 being in honor of Qatar’s national date of independence.
Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen took the red 50 Ferrari to victory from the yellow number 83 piloted by ever impressive Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, which fought off the attentions of the red 51 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi. After ten hours of racing and an astonishing. the AF Corse team left the Gulf with an iron grip on the early championship table.
Ferrari Won at Ease in Qatar 1812 Season Opener
The red 50 Ferrari took control of the race when Molina powered past Hanson’s yellow 83 with four hours left to run although a slow stop lost the lead for a while causing Fuoco to fight back past the yellow car before taking a later final stop and nursing a worn left front tire to take a 2-second win.
The privateer 83 Ferrari was in contention throughput on its way second as it held the second works car off over a gripping final few laps. The 51 started on pole but suffered two drive-through penalties for a VSC infringement and pit lane speeding for colliding with the 20 BMW and speeding in pit lane.
Behind the Ferrari steamroller, sophomore WEC outfit BMW stole fourth from Toyota with a fuel-only final stop. The Vanthoor Marciello Magnussen 15 BMW however lost several places after glitch with the safety car speed limiter staying on at the end of a yellow period and then a front body change and then a drive-through after a tangle with the 50 Ferrari.
Fifth and Sixth Better than Expected for Gazoo Toyota
Fifth and sixth was still a better than expected outcome for the reigning Manufacturers’ Champions Gazoo Racing, which went into the race lacking any real pace from its GR010 HYBRIDs and a shocking qualifying run when . A steady run however saw the Buemi Hartley Hirakawa car to fifth ahead of the sister Conway, Kobayashi, de Vries machine, which had started 17th.
The 20 Rast Frijns van der Linde BMW was seventh from 12 Lynn Nato Stevens JOTA Hertz Cadillac V-Series.R which recovered from a dramatic incident with the sister car while running 1-2 at a third hour restart.
Jenson Button braked hard in the 38 just as Alex Lynn accelerated in the 12 behind. They collided causing both cars to pit for repairs. That handed the Ferraris a lead they would not relinquish. The 12 Cadillac was also handed a drive through for causing the shunt.
Cadillac Capitulated in Qatar 1812
The di Resta, Jensen, Vergne Peugeot soldiered on to ninth after a largely anonymous race mostly tussling well down the order. Porsche Penske Motorsport suffered a weekend to forget just a year after the marque’s breakthrough 1-2-3 in the 2024 1812. Both cars lacked pace.
Then the Andlauer Christensen Jaminet 5 car had an early puncture and later lost time to rear damper repairs on its way to a forgettable tenth ahead of champions Estre, Vanthoor, and Campbell in the 6, which also suffered flat and time in the pits for a rear body change.
Alpine looked quick but went home pointless after a scrappy race, while Aston Martin’s spectacular and sonorous Valkyries struggled on their WEC debut. The 009 ended 23 laps down after spectacularly losing its passenger door and the 007 retired with transmission failure.
Corvette Z06 takes Maiden LMGT3 Victory at 1812
There was an even closer finish t the LMGT3 race when Daniel Juncadella delivered a lesson in defensive driving to claim a maiden WEC victory for the 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which he shared with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar. The Spaniard pulled every trick in the book to keep the Cottingham Baud Saucy 59 McLaren off for the win.
The Shahin Boguslavskiy Farfus BMW M4 ended third after starting back in tenth ahead of the surprising Robin Gehrsitz Barnicoat 78 Lexus the Heriau Mann Rovera 21 Ferrari 296 and the James, Robichon, Drudi Aston Martin Vantage.
So, Ferrari starts with a significant Qatar 1812 advantage as the World Endurance Championship now takes two six hour stops at Imola in Italy on 20 April and on 10 May at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on the road to the 24 Hours of Le Mans 14–15 June.
Photos: FIA WEC/DPPI
You must be logged in to post a comment.