Nine Cars in Action as Prologue Test Kicks Off

Nine of the 37 cars entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship took part in Monday’s opening session of the Prologue pre-season test in Qatar.

Teams were given the choice of whether to participate in the opening three-hour session of the revised schedule that kicked off at 2 p.m local time, or Tuesday’s final session, with the majority opting for the latter.

Of the Hypercar field, only Isotta Fraschini and Hertz Team JOTA took to the track, while three teams in LMGT3 – United Autosports, TF Sport and Iron Lynx – also opted for early track time.

The two JOTA Porsche 963s unsurprisingly topped the time charts, as Norman Nato set the benchmark of 1:41.822 at the wheel of the team’s No. 12 car with around 42 minutes left on the clock.

That compared to a 1:43.206 set by Jenson Button in the sister No. 38 car and a 1:45.928 from the No. 11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione in the hands of Jean-Karl Vernay.

The Isotta spent the majority of the first two hours in the pits before it completed a representative lap, with Carl Wattana Bennett also getting some mileage later in the session.

The team concluded the session with 22 laps on the board, compared with 58 and 61 for the two JOTA Porsches.

Among the six LMGT3 runners, the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720s GT3 Evo of Nicolas Costa was fastest on a 1:56.583.

Second was the best of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, the No. 81 in which Charlie Eastwood set the best time of 1:56.634, while Nico Pino made a late jump to third in the second United McLaren with a 1:56.679.

Best of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s was the No. 85 Iron Dames-branded car courtesy of Michelle Gatting’s 1:57.081 flyer.

No major incidents were reported, although a full course yellow was called in the closing stages of the session.

All 37 cars are set to be in action for the second session of the WEC Prologue, which begins at 6 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and lasts for five hours.

RESULTS: Session 1