Prologue points to ultra-competitive campaign as BMW tops times
BMW emerged from the FIA World Endurance Championship’s traditional ‘Prologue’ test with pre-season bragging rights after Robin Frijns topped the timesheets for the German manufacturer, as the leading contenders proved to be extremely evenly-matched.
Day one pace-setter Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA seemed set to stay in charge in Saturday’s faster evening session around Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit as Sébastien Bourdais punched in the ‘purple’ sectors, only to spin the V-Series.R Hypercar just as he was poised to vault to the summit of the standings. Unbowed, after returning to the track, the Frenchman wasted no time at all in making good on his earlier promise by supplanting AF Corse’s Robert Kubica at the head of the order – but Frijns had a surprise for them both.
Neither BMW M Team WRT Hypercar had ended the opening day inside the top ten, but as the times began to tumble, the two Bavarian machines went on the attack – flying Dutchman Frijns shaving 0.145secs off Bourdais’ benchmark with a run that would not subsequently be bettered.
The final top six had something of a symmetrical look about it, as a BMW, Cadillac and Ferrari – all of whom dipped underneath the existing lap record – were followed by another BMW, Cadillac and Ferrari.
In evidence of how close and competitive the forthcoming campaign promises to be, Alpine and Toyota were also within six tenths-of-a-second of Frijns’ best effort, while Porsche Penske Motorsport lost track time due to a rare engine change in its #6 963 Hypercar after leading the way in session three.
In the LMGT3 category, Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 LMGT3 entries were separated by a scant 20 thousandths-of-a-second in the top two spots. Having similarly starred on day one, TF Sport (Corvette) and Akkodis ASP Team (Lexus) remained firmly in the mix on day two, as Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 slotted in just behind the Ferraris in third and a mere 0.2secs blanketed the leading sextet.
In total, competitors covered more than 12,000km over the course of the Prologue, and will now spend the next three days fettling, refining and re-prepping before the serious business gets underway with the curtain-raising Qatar 1812km (26-28 February) – the first of eight rounds on the 2025 FIA WEC schedule.
Fastest Combined Hypercar Times
1. Robin Frijns BMW M Team WRT 1m38.971s
2. Sébastien Bourdais Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA +0.145s
3. Robert Kubica AF Corse +0.170s
4. Dries Vanthoor BMW M Team WRT +0.282s
5. Alex Lynn Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA +0.325s
6. Antonio Fuoco Ferrari AF Corse +0.396s
7. Mick Schumacher Alpine Endurance Team +0.534s
8. Nyck de Vries TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +0.578s
9. Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari AF Corse +0.597s
10. Julien Andlauer Porsche Penske Motorsport +0.902s
Fastest Combined LMGT3 Times
1. Simon Mann Vista AF Corse 1m54.790s
2. Francesco Castellacci Vista AF Corse +0.020s
3. Zacharie Robichon Heart of Racing Team +0.149s
4. Jonny Edgar TF Sport +0.167s
5. José María López Akkodis ASP Team +0.169s
6. Finn Gehrsitz Akkodis ASP Team +0.197s
7. Grégoire Saucy United Autosports +0.285s
8. Charlie Eastwood TF Sport +0.384s
9. Marino Sato United Autosports +0.409s
10. Augusto Farfus The Bend Team WRT +0.473s
