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First blood has been drawn in this year's FIA World Endurance Championship, in what is sure to be a tense battle. But how did each Hypercar team do?
Well, we've got the data. Specifically, we've calculated each manufacturer's average lap time, taking the top 20% laps from each car and averaging them together to find an average value for each team.
Aston Martin
#007 - Tom Gamble, Harry Tincknell, Ross Gunn
Overall car average: 01:44.342
#009 - Alex Riberas, Marco Sørensen, Roman de Angelis
Overall car average: 01:44.360
Team average: 01:44.351
A brand new car, new drivers to WEC, and a new team to running prototypes. All things considered, Aston Martin's first race with the Valkyrie went alright.
The team will have learnt a lot simply by having the car on track in a race environment. Testing is great and you can learn a lot, but there's no substitute for racing. It's where the things you learn in testing are tested and the car truly comes alive.
Unfortunately, the #007 did retire with transmission problems, which weren't able to be fixed during the race. But to get one car to the finish after 10 hours is an achievement in itself and something the team should be proud of.
'We knew this was going to be a ‘learning weekend’ for Valkyrie,' said Aston Martin's head of endurance, Adam Carter.
'And we’ve encountered some of the ‘teething issues’ you would associate with a new racing programme. That said, we have been encouraged by the race pace both cars showed during their stints. We saw plenty of indications throughout our time during the Qatar Prologue and the opening race that give us cause to believe we can be competitive as the season matures.
'We’ve learned a huge amount over this past week, gathered considerable data, and this gives us plenty to build on as we look ahead to Valkyrie’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut at Sebring in two weeks’ time.'
Rating: 7/10
Porsche
#5 - Julien Andlauer, Michael Christensen, Mathieu Jaminet.
Overall car average: 01:43.906
#6 - Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell.
Overall car average: 01:43.970
Team average: 01:43.938
Let's be honest here. Porsche did not do well at Qatar.
Last year, Porsche won the race with the #6, the first win for an LMDh-rules car in WEC. Plus, they finished 1-2-3, just as Ferrari did this year, with a customer car in second and the other factory car in third.
This year, Porsche were nowhere. They were, on average, the slowest team of those who'd competed last year, almost nine tenths a lap off Ferrari. The fact they scored some points, with the #5 car finishing 10th, is somewhat remarkable and a testament to the skill of the drivers and the guys on the pitwall.
In general, though, Porsche were largely anonymous in this race, and all weekend, since they failed to get either car into Hyperpole. They never troubled the leaders in the race and only managed to get towards the sharp end via the off-kilter strategy with the #5 car.
Porsche's customer team, Proton, were as anonymous as the factory cars, finishing behind both and only in front of the Aston Martins. Porsche, and Proton, will be hoping for better — much better — in Italy.
Rating: 4/10
Peugeot
#93 - Jean-Eric Vergne, Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen
Overall car average: 01:43.791
#94 - Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen, Stoffel Vandoorne
Overall car average: 01:43.846
Team average: 01:43.819
Peugeot are so frustratingly inconsistent. Last year the team looked as though they were on the verge of a breakthrough, almost taking a podium at Fuji and going one further at Bahrain, taking third. That was the 'new' 9X8's first podium.
Here, they finished a best result of ninth, with the #93 car, and never really looked like challenging for more. Despite the fact that the 'old' 9X8 almost took a podium here last year. It makes no sense.
They've spent a joker upgrading the suspension, which supposedly will help the car's performance on bumpy tracks, which has been both versions of the 9X8's achilles' heel.
So we'll have to see what it's like on bumpier, more old-school tracks such as Imola, Spa and Le Mans, the last of which is of course made up of predominantly public roads (although much less than in years past, these days).
At the same time, though, reasons to be cheerful: both 9X8s were quicker than both factory Porsches over the race distance. That's something at least, although I very much doubt that'll be a trend over the season.
Rating: 5/10
Alpine
#35 - Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi
Overall car average: 01:43.689
#36 - Jules Gounon, Mick Schumacher, Fred Makowiecki
Overall car average: 01:43.859
Team average: 01:43.774
Nul points, as the French team would say, for Alpine this past weekend. Pointless? Probably not, but I think they'd have wanted and expected better.
They started well, with Habsburg running third in the early stages and generally keeping his rivals behind him, but gradually they seemed to fade as others moved up ahead of them and asserted dominance.
The A424 is a good car; it's fast and balanced. The reliability is always a question mark given the Mecachrome engine, but it survived at Qatar, which is something.
Then again, it survived in the Middle East race last year, the A424's first race, then both cars blew up early on at Le Mans within half an hour of each other, before the darkness had arrived. So it's hard to say if Alpine's joker upgrades have helped just yet; we'll only really be able to judge that in June.
But anyway. No two ways about it: 13th and 14th for Alpine is disappointing and not what they would have wanted, after showing pace potential in both the Prologue and free practice.
Even more so given the #35 car was quicker than both Peugeots on average over the race distance, and in general, when looking at the team average, they were quicker than their French rivals too.
Rating: 4/10
Cadillac
#12 - Alex Lynn, Will Stevens, Norman Nato
Overall car average: 01:43.254
#38 - Jenson Button, Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais
Overall car average: 01:43.652
Team average: 01:43.453
First off: Cadillac had the pace to win this race.
It's obviously impossible to say whether they'd have won. There's too many variables there, far too many. But they had the pace.
And, yet again, it wasn't to be. That crash between the two cars put to bed any hopes of a decent result, and the #12 had to go into damage limitation mode to score eighth and at least take home some points.
It's a huge shame, because we were robbed of a great race at Qatar the moment Lynn rear-ended Button's car as the race was about to go green again. I'm not here to cast blame; I'll let online comments do that. But Cadillac were the only team with true pace to be able to take it to Ferrari. And yet, it wasn't to be.
Phil Oakley
Just look at the averages. Behind the three Ferraris, the #12 was the fastest car, although there wasn't much in it with the BMWs and the Toyotas. And that's with likely internal damage, in one way or another, to the front end after the crash.
But, the American manufacturer, now partnered with JOTA, have shown they have genuine pace and the ability to fight at the front with the front runners. And JOTA of all teams know how to win races. Both just need to execute on the potential.
Rating: 6/10
Toyota
#7 - Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries
Overall car average: 01:43.350
#8 - Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Overall car average: 01:43.360
Team average: 01:43.355
After looking off the pace at both the Prologue and in free practice, to finish the race fifth and sixth is truly sterling work from Toyota.
They hadn't looked like challengers at all leading up to the race, and a poor qualifying from Hartley in the #8 machine just added to the Japanese-German team's misery. It looked as though the race was going to be a long, hard slog.
But through perseverance and generally staying out of trouble, keeping their noses clean — something Toyota is consistently excellent at — they came away with a good result: 'damage limitation' the team called it.
They struggled at Qatar last year, too, and have been very clear since the Prologue this year that Lusail is not a track the GR010 Hybrid suits. They're clearly expecting to be more on the pace from Imola onwards, where they took a surprise win last year after the rain came and Ferrari dropped the ball on strategy.
Okay, yes, they were more than three tenths on average per lap slower than Ferrari. Yes they were beaten by a BMW. But that doesn't matter account for the fact that prior to the race, fifth and sixth would have a dream result, considering they were eighth fastest in the long runs in the Prologue and in free practice.
Rating: 8/10
BMW
#15 - Kevin Magnussen, Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello
Overall car average: 01:43.328
#20 - Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast
Overall car average: 01:43.349
Team average: 01:43.338
BMW were the true sleeper agents of this race. They didn't have the pace to challenge Ferrari, but were able to fight Toyota and come out on top, finishing 'best of the rest'.
While the #15 finished fourth, the #20 wasn't far behind either, just 17 seconds off the team car at the flag. A touch over 13 seconds off the #7 Toyota.
'This was a very good start to our second season in the FIA WEC,' said Andreas Roos, the head of BMW M Motorsport.
'Our two BMW M Hybrid V8s showed strong pace from the Prologue, and with a second place in qualifying, we underscored our ambition to compete for the podium. Unfortunately, the Ferraris were a bit too strong in the race, but we are satisfied with fourth and seventh places.'
As Roos said, the BMWs fell back during the race with the two Toyotas ahead for a significant period. But towards the end, the race swung back into BMWs favour, with Vanthoor, Marciello, and Magnussen able to retake fourth, beating the mighty Toyota.
Rating: 9/10
Ferrari
#50 - Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Overall car average: 01:43.041
#51 - Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Overall car average: 01:43.060
Team average: 01:43.050
Almost perfect from Ferrari at Qatar. They maximised their pace advantage to take a 1-2-3, and, importantly, maximum points for the manufacturer championship.
They did enjoy a decent pace advantage over their rivals, but early in the race, the Cadillacs were quicker. And as we've explored before, the American cars may have been able to genuinely challenge if they hadn't have taken each other out.
But it wasn't to be, and in the end it gave Ferrari a fairly easy ride to the finish. Toyota looked menacing at times and sometimes were very close to taking a position off them, but never really looked like having the pace to put the Italians under real, genuine pressure.
Phil Oakley
Ferrari tend to be in this position and then somehow have the win stolen out from under their noses — Imola 2024, anyone? — but this time they were able to come out on top.
The drivers were all keen to emphasise that this win is a result of a winter of hard work and graft from everyone at Maranello.
'First of all, I want to thank the entire team for the work done over the winter, which allowed us to arrive here in Qatar with great potential to exploit', said Fuoco.
'We performed very well in the race, both in tyre management and strategy. What we achieved today, with three Ferraris in the top positions at the end of a World Endurance Championship race, will go down in history.'
The only thing to take the shine off the result was the other factory car, the #51, getting a slew of penalties and finishing third. Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi definitely had the pace to win, but that requires a clean race with no errors — something the #50 crew did, and the #51 did not. Such is life.
A word, too, for Robert Kubica's excellent defending under pressure from Pier Guidi at the end of the race. Superb work from the Pole.
Rating: 9.5/10
Feature image: Charly Lopez / DPPI
This post is brought to you by The Racing Line, your personalised motorsport calendar app. Get session times for over 150 series, from rally to bikes, single seaters to sportscars with customisable notifications and built-in streaming. Download on iOS today!