Phil Hanson leads the 1812km Qatar, the opening race of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, in the ‘customer’ #83 AF Corse Ferrari.
The race is currently under safety car while debris on the racing line is cleared up, after Nico Varrone, in the #99 Proton Porsche 963, is cleared up after he ran over a kerb and lost bodywork.
Before the safety car, the Briton was 13 seconds ahead of factory Ferrari driver Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari 499P, while the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Nyck de Vries is third.
Molina’s Ferrari teammate Antonio Giovinazzi, in the #51 Ferrari, was leading the race but the #51 has come unstuck by two drive-through penalties. One was for an earlier virtual safety car infringement, while another was for pitlane speeding, both when Giovinazzi was at the wheel.
The cars have pitted under virtual safety car, with the safety car, which always comes out after virtual safety car in WEC, now collecting the cars back up.
Ryo Hirakawa, in the #8 Toyota, is behind his teammate in fourth. In fifth is Rene Rast in the #20 BMW M Team WRT, while Norman Nato is sixth in the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R, which was delayed after the Cadillac clash earlier on.
In LMGT3, Marino Sato in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 7290S GT3 Evo leads. The two United Autosports McLarens have been near the front all race, having started 1-2 on the grid, but they’ve had stiff competition, including from the #78 ASP Lexus RC F GT3.
While Ben Barnicoat, in the #78 Lexus, sits seventh in class at the moment, the car has led significant periods of the race. Currently second behind the safety car is the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mattia Drudi.
Third is the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Daniel Juncadella, while fourth goes to the sister #59 United Autosports McLaren of Sebastien Baud. Fifth is Kelvin van der Linde in the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
