FIA WEC Prologue at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar

FIA WEC Prologue at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar 2nd Practice

The second test session of the FIA WEC Prologue at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar was highly encouraging for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA. The new effort ended up occupying first and second on the timing screens with its V-Series.Rs.

The best time under the floodlights in the cooler temperatures was a 1m39.575s set by Alex Lynn in the No. 12 during a six-lap qualifying sim on medium tires. It was significantly quicker than the 1m41.673s that Robert Kubica topped the opening session with earlier in the day for AF Corse.

Meanwhile, in the sister No. 38 JOTA Cadillac, Sebastien Bourdais who was also tasked with completing qualifying simulations set a 1m39.788s on his second run to go second.

“It was the first time we had the 38 with Jenson, Earl and I and our engineering group together. The very first time,” related Bourdais.
“Is it perfect? No. Do we have work to do? Yes. But with the Prologue we have plenty of time to learn and go through the test program to be ready for next week. All in all, I’d say it’s been a positive start.”

Third on the screens at the end of the night was the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P. Antonio Fuoco also dipped into the 1m39s and was just two-tenths off the benchmark time during a qualifying sim of his own.

Further down the order the fastest Penske Porsche the No. 5 ended up fourth, while the No. 83 499P from AF Corse took fifth. The quickest Toyota ended up in the top 10, sitting eighth and marginally faster than the two Peugeots which sat ninth and 10th after completing some impressive long runs.

The No. 93 9X8 of Jean-Eric Vergne completed a notable 32-lap stint, followed by a 33-lap run on the same set of hard tires. The No. 94, which ended up 10th, went on a slightly different program, with Stoffel Vandoorne going on a six-lap run, then a 32-lap run, then a 28-lapper, all on the same set of medium Michelins.

On the other side of the coin, the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963, following an engine change, completed no stints longer than 10 laps and would set the seventh-fastest time.

It was another productive outing for the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries.
They didn’t light up the times, but did complete a combined total of 174 tours of the Qatar circuit, with the best times 2.7 and 3.4 seconds off the top pace.

LMGT3 saw AKKODIS ASP lead TF Sport again, but this time it was the No. 87 Lexus RC F LMGT3 rather than the No. 78 that set the benchmark time. Jose Maria Lopez set the car’s 1m54.959s, the only lap under 1m55s.

The No. 33 Corvette slotted in second again, with a 1m55.132s from Daniel Juncadella. Vista AF Corse’s Ferraris claimed third and fourth, both within two-hundredths of Juncadella’s lap.

The fastest Session 1 time from Ben Barnicoat a 1m55.862s was bettered by the top 10 cars in the class as the track continued to rubber in. The top eight cars came from four manufacturers, the two Lexus, the two Corvettes, two Ferraris and the two McLarens.
Only one car missed out on the action, the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3.
This is the car that suffered a major fire during the afternoon with Ben Tuck at the wheel.

The car has been stripped down in the garage and appears to be unlikely to take part in tomorrow’s track action while the team assesses the fire damage and, hopefully, rebuilds it. The target, according to a team source, is for the car to be back out for Free Practice 1 on Wednesday.

It was a tough session for Proton as a whole. The sister Mustang sat out the early part of the session, along with the team’s Hypercar class Porsche 963. The No. 88 Ford completed 32 laps, while the No. 99 toured the track 48 times, both the lowest totals in their respective categories.

Daniel Juncadella is looking ahead to a “massively exciting” second season with TF Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship, stepping into a sophomore campaign with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with a revised driver lineup.
The Spaniard has been retained as part of the lineup for the Tom Ferrier-led squad after making his championship debut last year.

However, while the sister No. 81 machine will feature an unchanged driver crew compared to last year, Juncadella has been paired up with two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Ben Keating and reigning European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion Jonny Edgar aboard the newly renumbered No. 33 car.

Keating and Edgar replace Hiroshi Koizumi and Sebastien Baud, respectively, with the former moving into an ELMS program with TF while Baud has joined LMGT3 rivals United Autosports.
Juncadella and Chevrolet are fresh off a competitive second outing for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the Spaniard was a contender for GTD Pro victory and finished second alongside Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims.

That race also saw Canadian outfit AWA claim a landmark victory for the car by coming out on top in the GTD class.
“I think this is a very exciting season ahead because last year we started off with some reliability setbacks,” Juncadella told Sportscar365.

“The car was born with a lot of potential in terms of performance, but we had to nurse some typical stuff that you get on a new car that sometimes you don’t expect.
“Also Hiroshi as my teammate last year, unexperienced in WEC, first time really racing [in a] high level championship.
Also same for Sebastien Baud as the silver. I think this year is clearly a massive step forward in all senses.

“I think the car has been very reliable since Daytona. We could see all cars, apart from one of the Corvettes, [had] no issues at all. Even during the whole build-up into the race, our car, at least number the No. 3 Corvette, was great.”
Juncadella argued TF Sport is “for sure” in a better position at Qatar compared to last year’s season opener, where the No. 81 car failed to finish due to damage to the electrical harness, while the Spaniard, Koizumi and Baud finished tenth in class, five laps down.

“We actually we came into Qatar with very limited knowledge,” he said.
“A lot of Pratt Miller guys helping us and supporting us that weekend but still limited knowledge from performance and like straight away nursing little reliability setbacks, so you can’t really focus that much on performance.
“Whereas now we’re just constantly looking for setup gains and finding stuff, so that is a much better [place].”

Juncadella also expressed excitement over working with Keating, who took one of his Le Mans class wins with TF Sport and also claimed the final GTE-Am world title driving for Corvette Racing two years ago.
He drew a comparison to Koizumi, who he says made a “massive step forward” across the course of his first world championship season, but was working through a “language barrier” because of a lack of proficiency in English.

The Japanese driver paired up with a translator during the season and broke through into Hyperpole for the first time at his Fuji home round before ending the season with a third place in the Bahrain season finale.
“Towards the end of the year, I really enjoyed being with him,” Juncadella said.

“But still, the language barrier made a difference. And now with Ben, I think you can see like he’s very relaxed and a lot more relaxed in that sense because he just knows himself.
“He takes it step by step. We’re here at a new track [for him]. He just [does] his first run, and he just takes it step by step.
“He’s very conscious about what’s happening around him, and that’s pretty cool.”

Additionally, with Edgar as a Silver, who Juncadella predicts to be “a surprise for many this year,” the Spaniard expects the No. 33 to be a serious contender in the LMGT3 class across the season.
“It’s clear, I think our car is going to be up there every race fighting for a big win, big results,” he said.

“That’s my take. I think it’s one of the strongest lineups.
“For sure, for me, it’s massively exciting because if I had had this lineup last year with a car that was maybe not ready to fight at the front, it would have been frustrating, I guess.

“We saw in the sister car that they had Tom Van Rompuy, who was very strong straight away. Pole position, first race weekend, [but] not finishing the race.
“I guess all the ingredients are coming together this year, and that’s cool.”

Porsche Penske Motorsport led the way in the third FIA WEC Prologue Test session this afternoon.
The No. 6 963, following its engine change yesterday, led the way with a 1m40.428s from Kevin Estre.
Nobody eclipsed the best time from Friday set by Cadillac’s Alex Lynn 1m39.575s but it was tight, with the top nine ending up within a second of Estre, and the top five setting times in the 1m40s.

The two factory Ferrari 499Ps the No. 51 edging the No. 50 and the No. 83 example from AF Corse ended up slotting in second, third and fourth after completing the most in the Hypercar class
The best times from Ferrari in the heavily delayed session were set late on during qualifying simulations. Antonio Giovanazzi logged a 1m40.679s in the No. 51 and Antonio Fuoco completed a 1m40.722s in the 2024 Le Mans winning No. 50.
The No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R completed the top five with a 1m40.968s from Jenson Button.

As for the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries, a source within the team told RACER, “Things are going very well, we are learning a huge amount, with a lot more to come. Every lap sees us learning more about the car and the difference that just a minor change can make on an individual control or setting. It’s very early days.”

The two V12-powered prototypes ended up 17th and 18th, just over two seconds off. But pace isn’t the focus right now, it’s longer running. And both cars logged over 70 laps
An incident at Turn 5 for Racing Spirit of Leman’s Derek Deboer disrupted the test. The Vantage ended up sustaining front and left-hand-side damage from a hit with the barriers, which needed repairing for over an hour.

Race control, due to the time lost, extended the running by an hour. Deboer, thankfully, is okay. The car is repairable but won’t be seen again today.

Up the top in LMGT3, it was TF Sport again flexing its muscles. The No. 33 Corvette completed a 1m55.200s at the hands of Jonny Edgar, who bettered his teammate Daniel Juncadella’s best time during a long run at the very end and came within a 10th.

Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari ended up second with the No. 54 Ferrari 296 LMGT3, and the No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus would sit third by the time the checkered flag was waved.

All but one of the LMGT3s made it out on track, the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang is still being rebuilt after its fire yesterday.
The car has had to be stripped down to its frame by the mechanics.

Robin Frijns set the quickest time of the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue in Qatar during the fourth and final session.

The Dutchman steered the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 to a best lap of 1:38.971, producing a time that was not only quicker than all previous three sessions, but also faster than last year’s pole position time for the Qatar 1812km set by Matt Campbell.
Sebastien Bourdais was second in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R, 0.145 seconds behind Frijns but just 0.025 seconds quicker than Robert Kubica in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.

The second BMW slotted into fourth with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel, while the top five was competed by the No. 12 Cadillac piloted by Alex Lynn.
Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 Ferrari was sixth ahead of the fastest of the Alpine A424s in the hands of Mick Schumacher and the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Nyck de Vries.

The No. 51 Ferrari and No. 8 Toyota completed the overall top ten, driven by Antonio Giovinazzi and Sebastien Buemi, respectively.
Vista AF Corse went 1-2 to top the LMGT3 ranks, spearheaded by a 1:54.790 set by the No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann
Mann’s stablemate Francesco Castellacci was a mere 0.020 seconds back in the No. 54 sister car, while Heart of Racing Team completed the top three with its No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo driven by Zach Robichon.

The session was interrupted by a single red flag for debris, although a pair of Full Course Yellows were triggered by spinning Hypercar runners.
First, Bourdais spun the No. 38 Cadillac and got beached at Turn 13 in the opening minutes and needed to be recovered.
Ross Gunn suffered a similar fate in the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie at Turn 4-5 with an hour and 42 minutes to go
With the Prologue running now completed, track action continues with the two opening Free Practice sessions for the Qatar 1812km on Wednesday.