Qatar 4 Hour Report: No.6 Porsche extends lead; Manthey PureRxcing Porsche continues to head LMGT3

Hypercar

• No.6 Porsche Penske steadily builds lead in third and fourth hours in Qatar as Kevin Estre completes double stint before handing over to Andre Lotterer.
• Lead to the second placed No.93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hybrid Hypercar is 28-seconds as the fifth hour ticks over with Jean-Eric Vergne getting his first laps at the wheel after taking over from Mikkel Jensen
• No.12 Hertz JOTA Porsche continues to run well in third position as Callum IIlott, Norman Nato and Will Stevens all get time at wheel in opening hours of the race.
• Stevens gets second stint at wheel and is able to consolidate position but is 35 seconds behind the Peugeot before handing back over to Nato
• Fourth is the No.5 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar which fights back after a vibration issue in the first hour of the race. Frederic Makowiecki is making up for lost time in the cockpit
• Last car on the lead lap is the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P as Yifei Ye enjoys stints at wheel after Robert Kubica opened the running. WEC rookie Robert Shwartzman takes over just before fifth hour arrives and runs strong fifth
• Toyota Gazoo Racing sit fifth as Nyck de Vries gets first stints at the wheel aboard No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar and runs sixth but is a lap off the leader as Kamui Kobayashi takes over the wheel
• Behind the top six the rest of the top 10 is filled out by: 7^th No.38 Hertz Team JOTA; 8^th No.94 Peugeot TotalEnergies; 9^th No.2 Cadillac; 10^th No 8 Toyota

It's time for the doctor.

A moment for the history books; MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi jumps in the No.46 BMW M4 LMGT3 for its official #WEC race debut.#WEC #MotoGP @followWRT @BMWMotorsport pic.twitter.com/1cmluiyNqw

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) March 2, 2024

LMGT3

• No.92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 LMGT3 continues to lead in the new LMGT3 category as Joel Sturm completes double stint and hands back over to Aliaksandr Malykhin who started the race
• Malykhin enjoys 26-second lead over the No.54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari as Davide Rigon takes over from Francesco Castellacci. Earlier, Thomas Flohr had driven platform building stints to hand over to his teammates
• The Manthey EMA entry makes it a Porsche 1-4 as Yasser Shahin gets his first stints at the wheel following strong pace from Morris Schuring who ran second for most of third and fourth hours
• The Porsche 911 LMGT3 car is overtaken by a flying Alessio Rovera in the No.55 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari as the fifth hour arrives
• Valentino Rossi makes his WEC racing debut as he takes over the No.46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 from teammate Ahmad Al Harthy who completed heroic triple stint. That was despite losing access to his drinks bottle in the first hour.
• Rossi runs fifth in category ahead of the No.777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage driven by Clement Mateu after Erwan Bastard handed over to him in the fourth hour
• The top 10 is completed by: 7^th No.31 Team WRT; 8^th Heart of Racing Aston Martin; 9^th No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini; No.10 No.95 United Autosports McLaren

Click HERE for the order after four hours of racing in Qatar.