Muscat – The first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season started impressively but ended in disappointment for Ahmad al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde at Lusail in Qatar on Friday, when a realistic podium challenge ultimately became an 11th place finish.

After a strong qualifying performance from Team WRT’s No.46 BMW M4 LMGT3, where Oman’s Al Harthy was sixth fastest to progress to the all-important Hyperpole session in which Rossi achieved eighth on the LMGT3 grid for the Qatar 1812km, hopes were justly high for the 10-hour encounter.

Everything began incredibly well on race day with Al Harthy moving up from the fourth row of the grid into the podium placings, during a sensational triple stint throughout the first third of the race at the Middle Eastern track.

Team-mates Rossi and van der Linde shared the remainder of the contest but their challenge was stunted due to an as-yet unidentified issue with the car, which badly impacted pace, and some track limits penalties later on.

“I was really, really happy with the way I drove during the first three hours of the race,” said Al Harthy. “We decided to keep me in the car as we were climbing up the order, we were surprised by the pace and where we were so that was a very positive part of the race.

 “Unfortunately, we picked up a problem, which we are going to analyse, where we lost the pace of the car after my stint and when Valentino and Kelvin were in the car – it was clear we were suffering with an issue so WRT and BMW are going to investigate. We finished the race, which was important for us to do, and we know we have the package for Imola and we’re looking forward to that.”

Al Harthy lined-up eighth on the LMGT3 grid for the start of the race, the highest placed of the BMWs, and quickly moved up a place into seventh after a clean start. Running strongly, he broke into the top six after just 10 minutes of action and with half an hour gone he was into fifth position.

Fifth swiftly became fourth as he moved towards podium contention and with 50 minutes elapsed the No.46 BMW M4 was only six seconds shy of third. Following the first pit stops Al Harthy stayed in the car for a double stint, continuing to lap impressively and consistently.

With 50 laps complete, one hour and 45 minutes gone, the OQ Group, Sohar International, Omantel, BMW Oman, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and Experience Oman supported driver had closed to within two seconds of the podium.

At the end of hour two, as the next batch of pit-stops played out, Al Harthy moved into second and then briefly the lead of LMGT3 early in hour three. The No.78 Lexus RC F reclaimed first place after emerging from its stop, with the Omani comfortably holding second for the bulk of the next hour prior to the next pit visit – concluding an outstanding triple stint for the Bronze graded racer.

Rossi took his first miles of the race next, moving up from seventh when he joined the action into the top six. When the Safety Car was deployed at the mid-point of the contest, Rossi handed over the No.46 car to van der Linde and he rose as high as second position in hour seven.

With the South African and Italian team-mate Rossi sharing the concluding hours, pushing hard for the best possible finish under the night skies of Qatar, it became obvious there was an issue which had begun to impact the pace of the BMW. Coupled with two drive-through penalties for track limits infringements, this had a significant bearing on the end result.

As the final hour neared, van der Linde had moved back up into ninth place before making a pit-stop with just over three quarters of an hour to go. After re-emerging in 11th he moved up into 10th, but a 30 second stop/go penalty followed with only 15 minutes to go meaning he ended in 11th spot.

There is now a seven week break in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship calendar ahead of round two of the season, the 6 Hours of Imola, which will take place over the weekend 19th/20th April in Italy.