Porsche won the 1812 km of Qatar 2024 at Lusail International Circuit. The #6 Porsche 963 of Porsche Penske Motorsport covered 335 laps over 9h 56m, a race distance of 1,815 km. The winning crew: Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor. The margin to second place was 33.3 s. The fastest manufacturer also produced the winner.
How the Lead Was Won
Across the race we counted 1 lead change among 2 different cars in the HYPERCAR class. At the closest point, first and second were only 1.3 s apart. For 5 of 8 measured hours the gap stayed under 30 seconds.
The leader was never fully out of reach, but the pressure came in waves rather than all race long.
Figure 1 shows how that gap moved over the distance.
Manufacturer Pace
We rank pace by the average of each manufacturer’s fastest lap. That measures real speed over the distance instead of one lucky lap. The order at the top: Porsche (193.4 km/h), Peugeot (191.9 km/h), Cadillac (191.9 km/h).
Between the fastest and the slowest manufacturer in the HYPERCAR class lie 5.6 km/h. That is a wide spread. At this track, the concept differences show clearly.
Figure 2 sets the pace order side by side.
Reliability by Class
6 of 37 cars did not make the finish — an overall retirement rate of 16%. The heaviest toll fell on HYPERCAR with 21%, while LMGT3 came through best at 11%.
Over this distance, reliability is a result in itself. A car that stops scores nothing, no matter how fast it was.
Figure 3 compares the classes directly.
Efficiency Over the Distance
Our efficiency score multiplies average lap speed by laps completed and compares that to the class average. It rewards cars that were fast and stayed out of trouble. A value of 1.000 is exactly class average.
The top score goes to #5 Porsche with 1.062. The winner, #6, is not on top here. Track position and strategy turned into a result that raw efficiency alone does not explain.
Figure 4 ranks the cars by that score.
The Closing Phase
In the final hour, 11% of the field held position within ±1 place (n = 37). The closing hour stayed busy, with position changes across the field. The biggest single move came from #93 Peugeot, 35 places back.
Figure 5 shows how settled the finish really was.
Fastest Lap and Class Gaps
The fastest single lap of the race belongs to #5 Porsche (Porsche Penske Motorsport): 1:39.748 at 195.5 km/h. Crew: Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki.
Between HYPERCAR and LMGT3 sits a pace gap of 12.9 s per lap. That number decides how much traffic the leaders have to work through.
Class winners — HYPERCAR: #6 Porsche (Porsche Penske Motorsport), LMGT3: #92 Porsche (Manthey PureRxcing).
Putting the Race in Context
The winner averaged 182.8 km/h across 1,815 km. On a 5.419 km lap, that is the pace the whole strategy had to sustain.
We calculate the same metrics for every race in the archive: pace order, reliability by class, lead changes, winning margin, closing stability and efficiency. That makes this race directly comparable with every other round of the 2024 season — and with the seasons before it.
All figures are derived from the full classification of every race hour and are recalculated with each build.
