The race, which was the first for the FIA World Endurance Championship in Qatar, was set to run for 1812 kilometres, and if this distance was not met, a maximum of 10 hours.

[2] This was also the first event in FIA World Endurance Championship history without participation of both the LMP2 and LMGTE classes.

[3] LMGTE Am, however, was replaced by the new LMGT3 class, which features largely the same idea as standard GT3 cars, but with a voluntary bodywork conversion kit.

In Hypercar, all nine cars received base weight, power, and energy values, which will be evaluated during the season.

Furthermore, the FIA tested a so-called 'Power gain' mechanism for the hypercars during the Prologue, where each car will receive a certain percentage of extra power after reaching a speed of 210 km/h (130 mph).

The 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Ferrari cars weighed 1075 kg, with 503 kW of power and 902 MJ of energy.

Lastly, the defending champion Toyota had the heaviest car, 1089 kg, with 510 kW of power and 914 MJ of energy.

Furthermore, all cars received base weight, power gain, and energy values, which will be evaluated during the season.

BMW, Alpine, Lamborghini, and Isotta Fraschini have all entered their new hypercars for the opening event.

However, Glickenhaus and Vanwall were not able to get a spot on the full-season Hypercar entry list, the former having announced the cessation of their WEC program before the season ended.

[7] In LMGT3, Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren, and Porsche were able to secure a full-season entries, fielding two cars each.

[9] The first practice session took place at 12:20 PM AST on Thursday and ended with Matt Campbell being fastest in the No.

[15] The third and final practice session took place at 11:00 AM AST on Friday, with Alex Lynn being fastest in the No.

In this format, both classes get a 12-minute session, after which the top 10 fastest cars advance to the Hyperpole round.

The Hyperpole session lasts 10 minutes, and decides the car starting from pole position.

77 Proton Competition Ford did not set a time in the first LMGT3 qualifying session due to an issue with the car.

50 Ferrari AF Corse with Miguel Molina took the lead, in front of Michael Christensen in the No.

51 Ferrari, which had to be replaced in the pit lane and caused the first full-course yellow of the race, whilst the sister No.

50 Ferrari received a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry.

5 Porsche entered the pits due to vibrations in the right-front part of the car, whilst in LMGT3, the No.

77 Proton Competition Ford suffered a puncture, which saw the car make an earlier-than-planned pit stop.

27 Aston Martin whilst in second place, behind class leader Klaus Bachler in the No.

The stewards were still busy handing out penalties to cars in both classes, mainly for pit stop infringements and abuse of track limits.

93 Peugeot, which was running in second at the time, suddenly slowed down with Jean-Éric Vergne limping across the track to take the chequered flag.

Stellantis Motorsport director Jean-Marc Finot said that the failure was likely due to an unexpected rate of fuel during the car's final pit stop.

12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott, Norman Nato, and Will Stevens.

92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin, and Joel Sturm won the first ever LMGT3 race, 4.8 seconds ahead of the No.

27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas.

777 D'station Racing Aston Martin of Erwan Bastard, Clément Mateu, and Marco Sørensen finished third, one lap down.

Cadillac LMDh chassis builder Dallara accidentally delivered two erroneous parts to the No.