It’s what everyone’s been waiting for! The 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship begins at the Losail International Circuit for no less than 10 hours of epic racing. And as always, I’m here to take you through it all!

The fifth hour opened with an edge-of-your-seat battle for the lead of LMGT3 between the #59 Mclaren, #78 Lexus and #77 Proton Ford all jostling for the lead. It made for fantastic viewing and the way this Losail track flows allows for plenty of side by side action in the class. Meanwhile the #51 Ferrari set about climbing back up the order, nearly rear ending the #20 BMW on its way back to the front.

Aston Martin’s weekend from hell continued as Romain De Angelis lost the #009 Valkyrie amidst brake failure at high speed, ruining the tires and losing it yet more time while their LMGT3 counterpart was now running 2nd in class behind the #95 Mclaren. In Hypercar it was still a Ferrari 1-2, with #83 leading #50 and Toyota still running 3rd and 4th. Then it was the #20 BMW from Micheal Christensen’s #5 Porsche.

Another debutant to the Hypercar class is Nico Varrone, who already has a GTE AM Class win from 2023. He began his stint by running wide over the kerbs and suffered bodywork damage, bringing out the safety car.

On the restart Kevin Estre’s #6 Porsche immediately unlapped itself from the race leading #83 Ferrari, while Jota’s #12 Cadillac fought back into contention. In LMGT3 drama ensued right from the off. After being in contention for hours, but now Bernardo Sousa’s #77 Ford Mustang caught fire bringing out another safety car immediately. The car was left stricken at the entry to turn 1. The safety car meant that Micheal Christensen’s #5 received a waveby and found itself now on the lead lap – but down in twelfth place. The weight adjustments from the BOP have really hurt Porsche it seems. Now the best placed Porsche, it had dropped down the order after rear brake damper repairs.

On the restart Phil Hanson led as the top three remained unchanged, the #20 BMW was fourth and Cadillac were back in it with their #12 car driven by Norman Nato. Alpine’s #35 car received a 5 second stop and go penalty, as the #38 Cadillac got a drive through penalty. Ferrari’s #51 car had more go against it, ten second added to its next stop for overtaking outside of the track. 

In LMGT3, it’s still Mclaren who lead ahead of Heart of Racing’s #27 Aston with Mattia Drudi and TF Sport’s Corvette with Johnny Edgar behind the wheel of that car. Sebastian Baud ran fourth with the #59 Mclaren with BMW’s #46 entry close behind.

With just over four hours to go then, the #50 retook the lead overall in Hypercar, then its the #83 and both Toyotas. BMW and Cadillac come next, with #20 ahead of #12 and the troubled #51 Ferrari runs 7th. In LMGT3, it’s still the #95 Mclaren ahead of Heart of Racing’s Aston with Corvette’s #33 in third. 

We’re well into the night now, and with just over four hours remaining who can lock in and secure themselves the best possible race position ahead of that all important final hour?