Porsche Leads Peugeot as Sun Sets on Lusail

Porsche Penske Motorsport held a comfortable lead at the head of the Qatar 1812km with three hours remaining in the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener.

At the seven-hour mark, Laurens Vanthoor’s No.6 Porsche 963 led the best of the Peugeot 9X8s, the No. 93 car of Nico Mueller, by 37 seconds as the sun set at the Lusail International Circuit.

The gap between the two lead cars fluctuated during the middle portion of the race, dropping as low as nine seconds before growing again during the seventh hour after Vanthoor and Mueller took over from Andre Lotterer and Jean-Eric Vergne respectively.

Only one other car remained on the lead lap, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche of Norman Nato, who was circulating one minute and 15 seconds off the lead.

Running fourth but a lap down was the best of the Ferraris, the third-string No. 83 car of Robert Kubica, five seconds ahead of Jenson Button in the No. 38 JOTA Porsche and the No. 5 Penske Porsche of Matt Campbell.

Michael Christensen had been vying with Nato for third place when he came in for a slightly early pitstop towards the end of the seventh hour to hand over the No. 5 to Campbell due to a tire vibration.

The best of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids, the No. 7 of Mike Conway, ran seventh ahead of the recovering No. 50 Ferrari that was delayed by an earlier drive-through penalty and the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn, which was penalized for making contact with Sean Gelael’s BMW M4 GT3.

Alpine’s No. 36 entry was occupying the final points-paying position with Mick Schumacher at the wheel.

The French manufacturer remained on course to end as best of the newcomers, with the two BMW M Hybrid V8s running 14th and 15th and the solo Lamborghini SC63 circulating in 17th, four laps down.

Isotta Fraschini’s Tipo 6 Competizione retired from the race around the six-hour mark with a reported front-left suspension problem.

In LMGT3, the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R held a 10-second advantage, with Joel Sturm 10 seconds clear of Daniel Mancinelli in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Mancinelli’s co-driver Alex Riberas had held a seven-second lead ahead of Klaus Bachler in the Manthey Porsche when he suffered a spin early in the seventh hour.

Valentino Rossi occupied the final podium position in the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3, albeit the best part of two minutes off the lead, four seconds ahead of Marco Sorensen in the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston, with Gelael completing the top five.

TF Sport’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which had been significantly delayed for a gear shift issue, retired from the race after the crew discovered damage to the electrical harness during a spring change.

The race remains on course to go to its full 335-lap distance amid a lack of safety cars and little in the way of other disruptions, with 237 laps complete as of the seven-hour mark.