TRIPLE TRIUMPH FOR 963 AND GT3 CLASS WIN AT WEC OPENER IN QATAR
Porsche Penske Motorsport stormed to a maiden victory with the 963 in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). At the season opener in Qatar, works drivers, Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor took the win at the wheel of the no.6 car. The no.5 sister 963 wrapped up the 1,812-kilometre event in third place. The Hertz Team Jota customer team bolstered Porsche’s triumph by finishing second place overall. In the new LMGT3 class, the Manthey Purerxcing 911 GT3 R clinched first place. A good day at the office!
Although Denmark’s Michael Christensen lost the lead from pole position on the first lap in the no.5 963, Vanthoor worked his way into the lead, the no.6 car only relinquishing for a brief period because of different pit stop rhythms. At the end of a nail-biting race on the Lusail International Circuit, Estre, Lotterer and Vanthoor had scored the first world championship victory for the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team, doing so with a lead of more than thirty seconds.
The Hertz Team Jota customer crew also showcased the might of the 963 in Qatar. UK racers, Callum Ilott and Will Stevens, as well as Frenchman, Norman Nato, delivered a near flawless drive in the no.12 Porsche, culminating in their second-place finish. The sister Hertz Team Jota 963 was driven by former F1 world champion, Jenson Button, his fellow countryman, Phil Hanson, and Denmark’s Oliver Rasmussen, the trio maintaining a spot in the top eight over long stretches, but retiring with only thirty minutes left on the clock. The identical hybrid hypercar fielded by Proton Competition (driven by Julien Andlauer, Neel Jani and Harry Tincknell) finished in eleventh position.
In the new LMGT3 category, Manthey Purerxcing set the benchmark. The GT3 R fielded by the seasoned customer team from Germany’s Eifel region dominated at the front of the eighteen-strong LMGT3 field for almost the entire distance of the race. After clinching the Asian Le Mans Series, the car’s drivers (Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm and Alex Malykhin) followed up with the season opening victory in Qatar. Manthey EMA’S 911, meanwhile, crossed the finish line in fifteenth place. “This weekend, we won the first world championship race based on FIA GT3 vehicles,” says Sebastian Golz, Project Manager of 911 GT3 R at Porsche. “This is a new chapter of racing history. From development efforts of the entire project team, to testing and race preparation by Manthey and its drivers, the work has paid off handsomely. I’m very proud of what’s been achieved, but this is only the beginning of what is already shaping up to be a challenging season. We will, of course, take important race data away with us from Qatar.”
Round two of this year’s WEC is the six-hour race in Imola (officially named Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari), scheduled for the 21st April. This marks a debut on the famous Formula One circuit after previous WEC races in Italy were hosted at Monza. You can keep track of all this year’s WEC race results by visiting the FIA’S official live timing and results noticeboard at fiawec.alkamelsystems.com.
THE SISTER HERTZ TEAM JOTA 963 WAS DRIVEN BY FORMER F1 CHAMPION, JENSON BUTTON