TF Sport delivered the first FIA World Endurance Championship victory for the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R as Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating won the Qatar 1812Km on Friday to open the season.
The trio drove the No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R to a remarkable victory as they came from 13th in class at the start to win by less than a half-second. It’s the second win in as many 2025 races for the Corvette GT3 racecar, as it also won the GTD class of the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the hands of customer team AWA.
The victory was the first in the FIA WEC and in a Corvette for both Juncadella and Edgar, and it was the eighth in the championship for Keating – including four in a Corvette.
TF Sport won its eighth race in FIA WEC competition, and for the first time since the 2022 Six Hours of Fuji.
The three drivers and the No. 33 TF Sport team worked their magic in the race’s opening half. Keating drove from 13th at the start to sixth in a little more than three hours in his first WEC race since winning the 2023 GTE Am title in a Corvette.
Keating completed his required driving time and handed off to Edgar for his first laps in FIA WEC competition. The progression up the order continued through a double-stint as the race went into darkness and the Corvette up into third place.
Juncadella drove a double-stint of his own and moved the Corvette into the class lead for the first time just past the halfway point. Another stellar run by Edgar kept the No. 33 Z06 GT3.R in the thick of it heading into a climatic final hour.
Juncadella got back in the Corvette with a little under 90 minutes to go and made his last pit stop for fuel and left-side tires to counter a full-service stop with four fresh tires for the second-place No. 59 McLaren. The two cars ran nose-to-tail for the final 30 minutes as Juncadella withstood the immense pressure, holding off his pursuer and navigating the faster traffic.
Things didn’t work out as well for the No. 81 entry. Tom Van Rompuy began the race ninth in class and steadily moved toward the front and inside the top-five in his opening stint. Disaster struck with a mechanical issue shortly after Van Rompuy’s first pit stop, in the form of a broken alternator pulley shaft that forced the retirement of the No. 81 less than an hour into the race.
TF Sport and the rest of the FIA WEC field moves on to its next race at the Imola Circuit in Italy on Sunday, April 20.
JESSICA DANE, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER:
"Congratulations to TF Sport on its thrilling first victory with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Winning at Qatar with the No. 33 Corvette continues the strong start to 2025 for our Corvette GT3 program, following on our results at Daytona.
Thanks go to Dani, Jonny, Ben, the TF Sport team and our Corvette Racing engineering group for delivering this landmark victory in the FIA WEC."
TOM FERRIER, TF SPORT OWNER:
“There’s no denying that it was a big move for us to join GM and Corvette.
We knew it was going to be a challenge the first year, and it was to start with.
We gathered momentum as the year went on. Bahrain ended fantastically with a second and third, which was really exciting.
We went to Daytona this year and everyone saw the reliability and how much it had improved on the Corvette, and that gave us a bit of confidence.
We had a great Prologue, struggled a bit earlier this week but knew we had a good car for the race.
Furthermore, we executed perfectly today. I’m sad for the 81 but absolutely over the moon for GM, Corvette Racing and ourselves. It’s a huge result for us.”
TF SPORT POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“For the whole stint, for sure, that was a lot of pressure in the last 30 minutes.
At the beginning, I didn’t think I could hold (the No. 59) off. I just focused on hitting my marks. I could see where he was stronger in places.
There were a couple of places where he could have gone for it and I think he was unsure. So it was good to keep him behind.
At some point I was thinking we were going to finish second, but I was focused on myself, my driving and not making mistakes.
I don’t recall ever being in this situation where an unexpected win comes up and the last 40 minutes I have to defend for it. And here we are!”
JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“Going to bed last night, I didn’t expect that we would end up here. To be honest, I was hoping for top-eight or top-six, just a clean race and some points.
In the Prologue we were happy with the car, but in Free Practice and qualifying we seemed to struggle.
A few small changes we made really helped the car today. We still weren’t the fastest, but we were good enough, the strategy was amazing, the pit stop and everything… nobody made mistakes. It was just a very good race all around, and I’m very happy to win my first WEC race.”
(On early run): "Those first two stints went quite well. A couple of small changes we made for the race seemed to have helped. Ben felt much more confident, and I was happier with the car than where it was in practice, so that was nice. I lost a little track position with a drive-through, but then managed to overtake a couple of cars on track. Until I got out of the car, I didn't know where we were. It was a nice surprise to see we were third.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I couldn’t have imagined this. Even if you look at the way the race unfolded, we didn’t have the speed to win it.
We had to let others take themselves out of contention, and we’ll take it any way we can get it! We ran a clean race and a hard race.
Likewise, we did everything we could to stay up front. The last 30 minutes of Dani staying in front of the McLaren was just epic.
To start 13th and end up in first place after 10 hours of hard racing is not easy. And it’s great to have Keating Chevrolet in Victory Lane!”
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
"We started the race quite well. I was able to drive from ninth to fourth. We had a strong car and were climbing up the order.
When I came into the box and started my second stint, shortly after that we had a technical issue and had to retire the car.
The team did a really, wonderful job. I hope to come back stronger at the next race at Imola."
