6 hours completed, 4 hours to go

The No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which started the race from pole in the hands of Tom van Rompuy, lost ten laps with a gearshift issue that saw Rui Andrade stranded at pit entry before the car was pushed into the garage.

TF now in 9th and 15th places

With 101 laps completed, the race remains barely on target to reach the scheduled 335 laps before the time limit of ten hours is reached.

The best the Z06s could do was 10th place, about 5 laps down
Other one finished dead last, tranny broke and the wiring found broke

In the LMGT3 class, Manthey PureRxcing scored victory with the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler.

The battle for the first-ever class win in the new category was fought between the PureRxcing entry and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Alex Riberas, Daniel Mancinelli and Ian James, which finished only 4.8 seconds down at the finish.

Bronze-rated driver Malykhin put the No. 92 in the lead of the race early on with a strong opening stint, with the Porsche enjoying an advantage as high as 20 seconds with a little over two hours to go before Riberas closed the gap on Bachler late on.

D’station Racing made it two Aston Martin teams on the podium, as Marco Sorensen, Erwan Bastard and Clement Mateu defeated the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 entry shared by Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy for the final podium spot.

The top five was completed by the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s, the No. 54 car of Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci.

After scoring the first pole of the LMGT3 era, TF Sport’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was a non-finisher, with an early gear shift issue putting the car that Tom van Rompuy started at the head of the field in the garage before its race was ended by an electrical problem.

The only other non-finisher was the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.

Despite having a time limit of ten hours, the Qatar 1812km ran to its full scheduled distance of 335 laps, which was completed with around four minutes on the clock.

LUSAIL, Qatar (March 2, 2024) TF Sport left the season-opening event for the FIA World Endurance Championship with both its Chevy Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs combining to score points in what will be an extremely tough and deep LMGT3 class throughout the season.

The trio of Corvette factory driver Daniel Juncadella plus teammates Sébastien Baud and Hiroshi Koizumi teamed to finish 10th at the close of the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 Km in the No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
It was the first race for TF Sport under the Corvette Racing banner, the first race for the trio and the first start as WEC full-season competitors for each of the three drivers. They earned two championship points for their efforts.

Koizumi began the race from 11th after just missing Friday’s Hyperpole session and had the worst of the traffic among all the TF Sport drivers. He handed over to Baud after a little more than 90 minutes of running.
The youngest of the TF Sport driver lineup at 23 years of age was immediately on pace with laps that rivaled his more experienced factory teammates.

Juncadella had his first laps in WEC competition after three-and-a-half hours and ran 10th to stay in a points-paying position before the driver rotation began cycling through again into dusk.
Koizumi drove two stints with his best pace of the race to keep the No. 82 in the points before his drive time was complete.
Both Baud and Juncadella recorded solid stints during intense competition in the middle of the 18-car field.
That included the pole-sitting No. 81 Corvette of Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and factory driver Charlie Eastwood, which retired with an electrical issue after 177 laps.

Van Rompuy led from pole position in the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for the first 20 minutes before settling in for a solid double-stint to open the race. Each lap provided new data and more experience for the TF Sport team as it continued to learn about the Corvette in race conditions.

Teammate Rui Andrade remained in the top-10 just ahead of the 2.5-hour mark when he spun harmlessly but lost time to the pack of GT3 cars we were pursuing. Shortly thereafter, the TF Sport team got its first in-race experience of troubleshooting the Corvette when it had to replace the electronic shifter and lost seven laps in the process.

The Corvette ran well when it returned to the track in the hands of Eastwood before the team discovered an issue with an electrical harness, which ended up being a terminal issue. The trio still left Qatar with one championship point due to Van Rompuy’s pole run Friday.
The next race for TF Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Imola on Sunday, April 21.
The team will travel to the Italian circuit for testing next week as development of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R continues.

DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“I’m not entirely disappointed about the weekend. When we look back, there were zero issues, no reliability issues and no setbacks.
We ran a very smooth program.

Unfortunately, we need to look into improving a little bit the balance for Hiroshi. He struggled in the beginning, and that made our race difficult.
There were penalties and some drive-throughs, little things that we need to avoid in the future, but I’m sure we can.
All in all, it’s a positive start for TF Sport with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. There is a long way to go in this championship.”

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“After the dream start to our WEC campaign with Tom getting pole in the brand-new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, unfortunately today didn’t go as planned.
We had a great start to the race.

Unfortunately, after ending up a few laps down, we thought it best as we’re still new to this brand-new car to make a test out of the race itself.
As we came in for a stop after my first stint, we realized that we had a problem with an electrical harness and had to retire the car.
It was such a high yesterday, but unfortunately it wasn’t the result we hoped for today.
Imola is just around the corner, and I know we will come back strong.”