Klaus Bachler celebrated success on his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The 32-year-old Styrian won the 1,812 kilometers from Qatar in the GT3 class at the season opener on Saturday with his teammates Joel Sturm (Germany) and Aliaxandr Malychin (St. Kitts and Nevis). The trio crossed the finish line in a Porsche 911 GT3 R after 299 laps and almost ten hours at the Losail International Circuit with a lead of just 4.866 seconds.
Bachler celebrates a successful debut
“Just great”
The Austrian’s team, which had recently won the Asian Le Mans Series in the GT class, started the race in second place in the field of 18 and ended up just ahead of two Aston Martin teams. “Today is a really big day for me. Competing in the World Championship for the first time – and then a win straight away, simply fantastic. It was a hard fight and a long race,” said Bachler with joy.
Italian motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi was fourth, one lap down, on his WEC debut with his BMW team. 40-year-old Richard Lietz and his three-man team in a Porsche couldn’t get past 15th place (+15 laps).
In the Hypercar class, the highest category, Alpine works driver Ferdinand Habsburg, together with the two Frenchmen Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin, were happy with ninth place out of 19 participants. The next stop on the eight-race WEC calendar is Italy, where the Six Hours of Imola continues on April 21st.
