- The pace shown by Hertz Team JOTA during the first session of the Prologue Monday with only nine cars on the 3.367-mile Losail International Circuit turned out to not be a fluke. In the evening session Monday, Callum Ilott was fastest overall with a lap at 120.560 mph in his customer Porsche 963. The lap was .132 seconds faster than Ferrari AF Corse's Antonio Fuoco. Jenson Button in the second
JOTA Porsche was third, then Ferrari's Antonio Giovinazzi and Cadillac's Earl Bamber.
The surprise here was the lack of pace from the Toyotas. The best Toyota was the No. 8 of Sebastien Buemi, who was 13th overall, 1.911 seconds back.
In LMGT3, United
Autosports' No. 59 McLaren with Gregoire Saucy driving was fastest with a lap at 105.881 mph. Saucy's lap was .062 seconds faster than Vista AF Corse's Davide Rigon in a Ferrari. Akkodis ASP Team's No. 87 Lexus for Esteban Masson was third, then The Heart of Racing's Ian James and TF Sport's Daniel Juncadella.
Tuesday morning's session saw Porsche Penske Motorsport's
Frederic Makowiecki go fastest in his factory Porsche with a lap at 119.747 mph. The lap was .037 seconds faster than Peugeot TotalEnergies' Stoffel Vandoorne. Kevin Estre was third in the second factory Porsche, then Jean-Eric Vergne in the second Peugeot. Cadillac's Sebastien Bourdais was fifth.
D'Station Racing's Marco Sorensen was fastest in LMGT3 in his Aston
Martin with a lap at 105.594 mph. The lap was .154 seconds faster than Rigon. Juncadella was third, then Marino Sato in United Autosports' No. 95 McLaren. James was fifth.
The afternoon session saw Makowiecki set the fastest lap of the Prologue with a lap at 120.724 mph. He was .054 seconds faster than Alex Lynn in the Ganassi-run Cadillac. Yifei Ye was third fastest in the
customer Ferrari 499P. Ferrari AF Corse teammates Giovinazzi and Fuoco were fourth and fifth.
In LMGT3, D'Station Racing was once again fastest with their Aston Martin. Erwan Bastard was quickest with a lap at 105.606 mph, .282 seconds faster than Vista AF Corse's Francesco Castellacci. Akkodis ASP Team's No. 78 Lexus for Kelvin van der Linde was third fastest, then
Alessio Rovera in Vista AF Corse's No. 55 Ferrari. Masson was fifth.
The test did have a couple of incidents. Estre had an incident Tuesday morning in his Porsche. Proton Competition's Harry Tincknell got his Porsche stuck in a gravel trap. However, two of the red flags were for more unusual reasons, such as a group of cats running amok on the
track.
