Porsche has clinched their maiden overall World Endurance Championship victory of the Hypercar era in the 2024 season-opening Qatar 1812km at Lusail International Circuit.
Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer drove the #6 Porsche Penske 963 LMDh to the win despite requiring an unscheduled stop within the final 15 minutes to replace a missing number panel on the car’s left side.
Despite the late scare, the team held on for a comprehensive 33.297-second victory over Hert Team JOTA’s Porsche 963 of Callum Ilott, Norman Nato and Will Stevens, who gained a place on the penultimate lap when Peugeot’s #93 9X8 ground to a halt in the hands of Jen-Eric Vergne while running second.
The second Porsche Penske entry of Australia’s Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki completed the podium, having earlier battled with car vibration issues.
The podium lockout is the first for a manufacturer in the World Endurance Championship since Audi completed the feat at Spa in 2013. The win is also Porsche’s first overall victory in the series since 2017, when Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard drove the LMP1-Spec 919 Hybrid to honours in Austin.
The #93 Peugeot 9×8 had hit the front early and showed great pace in the lead, but a mistake from Nico Muller in Turn 1 in the second hour allowed the #6 entry a way through.
Vanthoor, Estre and Lotterer controlled proceedings from here, with the #93 retaining second and reducing the gap to under 10 seconds at the beginning of the sixth hour.
As darkness descended, the Porsche up front began to pull clear for a comprehensive advantage. Contact with a Lexus GT3 in the final hour forced Estre to return to the lane to stick a new number panel on the car, but the advantage the team had built saw this completed with ease to keep them at the front.
Peugeot retained second until the penultimate lap, when Vergne lost power, promoting the JOTA entry to second and the second Penske 963 to third. The two Porsches battled for the second step on the podium, and Ilott was able to hold off Campbell for the position, crossing the line just one second apart.
Bamber’s Chip Ganassi Cadillac was home fourth, surviving a Turn 1 incident that gave it heavy damage when Alex Lynn, who started for the team, came together with the #94 Peugeot.
The team also received a 10-second penalty for contact with a BMW GT3.
The number 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, shared by Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, completed the top five, one lap off the pace in its debut outing.
Defending team champions Toyota Gazoo Racing struggled for pace for the entirety of the 9-hour, 56-minute race, with their best finisher being the #7 entry of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck De Vries.
After its late power loss, Peugeot’s #93 heart-breakingly limped home for seventh, having run in the top two for 95 per cent of proceedings.
After several hours of post-race investigation, the team were disqualified for breaching both sporting and technical regulations by the stewards. The entry stopped again on track after the chequered flag and was unable to return to Parc Ferme under its own power.
The #8 sister car of defending driver’s champions Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa finished ninth, following Peugeot’s disqualification, two laps off the leader’s pace.
The #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco was eighth, ahead of best Hypercar newcomers Alpine, with Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin in ninth.
The first of the new BMW M Hybrid V8 cars was 12th, while Lamborghini’s Hypercar debut was a difficult one, with Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara five laps off the pace in 15th.
Isotta Fraschini retired from its first race in the fifth hour.
Elsewhere, Porsche doubled down in victories, with the Manthey Purerxing 911 GT3 R winning in the new LMGT3 class.
The World Endurance Championship returns for the 6 Hours of Imola in Italy on April 20-21.
