Lone Star Le Mans – Syndication Server

No. 83 Ferrari wins at COTA following late Toyota penalty

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei and Robert Shwartzman became the sixth car in six FIA WEC races in 2024 to claim an overall victory Saturday evening at Circuit of The Americas in Texas. AF Corse’s privately-entered car …

AF Corse’s privately-entered car took the Lone Star Le Mans win in dramatic circumstances after a drive-through penalty in the final hour cost the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID the lead.

Toyota’s drive-through, handed to the No. 7 crew when Kamui Kobayashi was found to have not respected yellow flags while marshals recovered a stranded Peugeot, ultimately cost the Japanese manufacturer its third win of the season.

Kobayashi and his teammates Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway were forced to settle for second, as the Japanese ace was unable to reel in Shwartzman in the final 40m. He pushed his GR010 to its limits and managed to reduce the deficit from 9.5s to 1.7s by the end — making it the second-closest green flag finish in championship history — but couldn’t quite get close enough to make a move.

The race was highly entertaining in the closing stages and made for a truly momentous occasion for the both No. 83 crew and Ferrari. It was the first WEC overall victory for all three drivers and the first win for the 499P in a WEC race outside of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The race also added to a special weekend for the Prancing Horse, which won the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza earlier in the day.

It was a strategic war that went through multiple stages. In the first half, the Ferraris looked dominant, sitting 1-2-3 after a fast start, before BMW and Cadillac climbed into contention 2h in. It then turned into a strategic battle, as both the medium and hard Michelin compounds were utilized in the race. The teams at the front were split, some chose to experiment with different combinations, and others stuck to the mediums as the trackside temperature fluctuated.

The winning Ferrari switched between running three mediums and a single right-rear hard, and hards on all four corners in the race while the best Toyota and Porsche stuck to mediums the whole way through. This tactic would be key to the final result, as it kept Kubica at the start, Ye in the middle and Shwartzman at the end of the race permanently in the top three.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

“We can be happy. It’s been a tough race and we knew it would be critical with tires and traffic management, but the car worked super well. It started well, it finished even better. We couldn’t hope for a better Sunday,” Kubica said.

“There was a lot of pressure in the final laps because my tires were going away. I was sliding all over the place, and any mistake could have cost us the victory,” added Shwartzman.

Behind the No. 7 Toyota, the podium was completed by the Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari which started fourth and ran a consistent, clean race en route to making it a double podium for AF Corse.

Cadillac earned its best result of the season in fourth but will leave slightly frustrated on a day in which it had the pace to claim a podium finish with a clean race.

Alpine, too, enjoyed a standout performance, the No. 35 A424 completing the top five with a performance that suggests the French marque has taken a significant step forward.

“It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but we improved. We got into Hyperpole and finished P5. It was not the result we expected after a tough start to the race and a drive-through, but we recovered and in the end, we can be proud and build on this,” No. 35 driver Charles Milesi told RACER.

BMW, on the other hand, wasted a chance to come away with its first podium in the class. The M Hybrid V8s looked transformed early, with pace that matched the Ferraris. As the race wore on both cars faded through a combination of penalties and errors. The No. 15, which suffered a spin that cost a chunk of time early on, was the better placed of the two at the end, off the lead lap and eighth.

The final result of Lone Star Le Mans was both historic and critical for the championship battle. The No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari made gains Saturday, finishing ahead of the championship-leading No. 6 Penske Porsche, which struggled for outright pace, survived a heated clash with the No. 8 Toyota and fell from fifth to sixth after a late drive-through.

By salvaging a points finish, Porsche’s Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor still hold the lead going into the race at Fuji, but its margin has been reduced to 12 points over the two chasing crews who now sit on equal points in second.

“It’s not ideal,” Lotterer said. “I think we could have finished fifth, we finished sixth, we didn’t use our maximum potential. We were able to move forward though from 14th on the grid which was important.”

Further down the order, it was a tough race for the Lamborghini which lacked ultimate pace and finished 14th. The No. 8 Toyota also failed to fight at the sharp end like the sister car and eventually dropped down the order when it was dealt two costly penalties, the first for the aforementioned contact with the No. 6 Porsche, the second for not respecting yellow flags like the No. 7 and No. 6. It came home 15th.

The No. 50 would be the only factory Ferrari 499P to make it to the finish, as the No. 51 retired in the second hour while sitting second. The car retired as contact with the No. 78 AKKODIS Lexus damaged a wheel rim and led to a terminal drivetrain issue.

Giovinazzi was unable to get the car fired and up to full speed, returning to the pits under electrical power only before stopping on the pit apron. The car was then pushed into the garage and withdrawn from the race, the specific reason not yet disclosed.

It wasn’t the only car to hit mechanical trouble, as the No. 12 JOTA Porsche spent most of the race in and out of the garage with niggling issues. The No. 94 Peugeot also failed to make the finish, the car pulled off to the side of the circuit down the back straight 4h into the race, after a tough race that began with a puncture on the opening lap caused by contact with the No. 12.

Meanwhile, LMGT3 was utterly dominated by Heart of Racing, which claimed a lights-to-flag win from pole with its Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 EVO driven by Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas.

Maybe it was a home-field advantage. Maybe it was perfect execution. JEP/Motorsport Images

The trio were absolutely faultless in the punishing heat and completed the race almost entirely unchallenged, finishing with a winning margin of 20s. It was a maiden WEC LMGT3 victory for the team, all three drivers and the 2024-spec Vantage GT3, and came on home turf for Heart of Racing. It is also a 10th WEC class win at COTA for Aston Martin.

“Everyone worked in unison. I couldn’t be happier to do this in America,” James said.

“We won at home and for us, an American team, it’s great,” Mancinelli added.

Behind, the championship-leading No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche extended its points lead to 28 points with yet another strong finish, the car growing stronger as the race wore on.

Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler and Alex Malykhin — on the weekend which Malykhin described as the toughest of the season due to the weather, lack of circuit knowledge and success ballast applied to the car — dug deep and again came away with another massive result. They not only finished second, but crossed the line ahead of their title rivals too.

“Our team is just so good and we make such good strategic decisions that we end up in good positions. I’m really happy with second. It’s not a win but it’s not mega bad!” Sturm reacted. “Pace wasn’t the key today. We just stayed out of trouble and didn’t make mistakes.”

By pulling away even further in the points battle, the Lithuanian-flagged team has edged ever closer to claiming the LMGT3 drivers’ and teams’ championship.

“We didn’t have the pace for P1,” Sturm said. “It’s been tough, but we are picking up the points and that’s important.”

Completing the podium and securing a double podium for Porsche was the Manthey EMA 911. Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz and Morris Schuring, like their Manthey teammates in the No. 92, fought through the field and were rewarded handsomely for staying out of trouble. In championship terms, it was damage limitation, finishing just behind Pure Rxcing keeps them in the fight.

It was a worse situation for WRT’s No. 31 crew of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael, who finished fifth behind the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren and now head to Fuji 34 points adrift.

RESULTS

WEC’s season of uncertainty looks set to continue at COTA

Will Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas produce a sixth winner in six races in FIA WEC Hypercar? It certainly feels that way. This weekend in Texas the competition has been hotter than the local climate, with the Hypercar field …

Will Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas produce a sixth winner in six races in FIA WEC Hypercar? It certainly feels that way.

This weekend in Texas the competition has been hotter than the local climate, with the Hypercar field seemingly as close as it’s ever been. Throughout practice and qualifying multiple contenders have emerged, all quietly confident they’ll be in the mix tomorrow.

Ferrari has been the most bullish about its prospects. The double Le Mans winners expected to be competitive before FP1 got underway, the characteristics of the COTA circuit seemingly a good match for the 499P’s strengths.

And its high expectations, as it’s turned out, are not unfounded. The No. 51 and No. 83 combined for a front-row lockout this afternoon with rapid times in the 1m50s. The No. 50 crew — who are in the running for the drivers’ title — were not far off either, their fast time within half a second of the sister car.

Antonio Fuoco, who qualified the No. 50, admitted to RACER that he didn’t quite put it all together in the Hyperpole session, but added that he feels comfortable ahead of the race. The No. 50 will start fourth, with the other 499Ps around it and ahead of its championship rivals from Toyota and Porsche who could only muster times good enough for ninth and 14th respectively.

If either of the two cars that made it onto the front row wins tomorrow, it will be their first victory of the season. For the No. 51, the associated stats may come as a surprise. If Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi convert their first WEC Hypercar pole into a victory it would mark their first trip to the top step of the podium since the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours last year. To achieve that they’ll need to produce a metronomic run and hope team orders don’t come into play.

But Ferrari isn’t the only marque that impressed in qualifying. Yet again Cadillac was strong and will start third with its V-Series.R. It’s been a frustrating season for the American-flagged, Ganassi-run team, which all too often has shown pace on qualifying day only to struggle in the race.

With the No. 2 qualifying in the top four for a fourth race in a row, no questions remain about the V-Series.R’s ability to produce pace over a single lap. Instead, the spotlight is on race pace. In the post-session mixed zone, Alex Lynn appeared as motivated as ever to score a breakthrough result for the team.

“I said in the debrief to the team, ‘We’re good at having a good Saturday, well done, we’ve done it again, but let’s focus on banking a result tomorrow.’ That’s all we want, we want to nail a result on the table tomorrow night that we can be happy with, whether that’s P5, P6, a podium or a win,” he said. “We need to execute tomorrow because so far this season we haven’t done that, we need a result we deserve on home turf.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

What about Alpine? Charles Milesi was red hot in Hyperpole and put the No. 35 A424 fourth on the grid. For the first time, the French constructor looks poised for a big result, and just two races on from its disastrous outing at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Both A424s could have ended up in the mix for pole too had Mick Schumacher not found himself blocked by other cars and distracted by a wasp in the cockpit during his qualifying run aboard the No. 36.

“I had a wasp and two Ferraris blocking me — not a smooth session,” he told RACER. “On my fastest lap, I had the No. 51 in front, and on my first push, I had the No. 83 in front.

“As for the wasp, it appeared on the lap I got blocked — it was flying around and ended up sitting on the windscreen for a bit. Then it came towards my face so I opened the door and slapped it and it flew out. I got yelled at! And I’ve never had that before… It was unfortunate because we had good pace.”

A wasp kept Mick Schumacher from showing the Alpine’s full potential. JEP/Motorsport Images

Then there’s BMW, for the first time since qualifying at Le Mans, WRT’s M Hybrid V8s look like they’ve taken a step forward in performance terms. They will start seventh and eighth and could find themselves coming away with the Bavarian brand’s best results of the season if everything goes to plan.

As the Hypercar field matures and the BoP process evolves, digging deep for hauls of points on weekends where everything isn’t going your way has never been more important. It would not be a shock to see either the No. 6 Porsche, No. 50 Ferrari or No. 7 Toyota find a way to win tomorrow because there are no safe bets anymore. It’s becoming more and more challenging to get a true read of the form book pre-race with every passing race weekend and the WEC’s top class is all the better for it.

“I think it’s still a very open race, with some weather which can come into play — thunderstorms, I think, there is still a chance,” Hypecar points leader Kevin Estre noted.

It’s a similar story in LMGT3. With Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin on pole for the first time and the three cars locked in the race for the title fourth, 10th and 16th, a repeat of the Manthey and WRT show that’s been stuck on a loop since Qatar feels unlikely here in Austin.

Championship leader Alex Malykhin, who put the Pure Rxcing Porsche on the second row of the grid, seemed as relaxed as Fuoco, despite the team being in the weeds of what he describes as the toughest race of the season so far.

“The pressure is on our rivals — they have a 25-point gap to close and will need to take more risks than us. If we score points, we will leave here happy,” he said. “This is the next stage in the title battle.”

With that, the stage is set for Lone Star Le Mans and all the ingredients are in place for another memorable race.

Ferrari locks out Lone Star Le Mans front row at COTA

Ferrari AF Corse locked out the front row for Sunday’s FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, with the factory No. 51 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi setting the best time of the week in Hyperpole Saturday afternoon to claim the best grid spot. Alongside the …

Alongside the Italian on the front row will be the privately entered No. 83 499P, which ended up just under 0.2s shy after Robert Kubica’s best effort in the 10-minute dash.

“I am really happy. Since the beginning of the weekend, we’ve had a strong car and we have put it all together. We have good race pace too,” Giovinazzi said after scoring his first WEC pole.

The fight for pole was a thriller, with multiple manufacturers seemingly in with a shout until Ferrari’s drivers found a way to take command and turn up the wick.

Of the drivers in the mix, Cadillac Racing’s Alex Lynn turned heads, as did Charles Milesi from Alpine.

Milesi sat on provisional pole briefly before Giovinazzi’s best lap came in, his best tour a 1m50.751s in the No. 35 A424. While it wasn’t quite enough for a front row spot, it did ensure that the French marque will start on the second row in fourth. Lynn’s effort produced a similar result, a late flyer put the No. 2 V-Series.R third.

The Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari ended up fifth, ahead of the fastest factory Porsche — the No. 5 — that will start sixth. It was a solid effort from BMW Team WRT, its M Hybrid V8s making it to the shootout and claiming seventh and eighth.

The No. 7 Toyota ended up qualifying second of the three title-contending cars in ninth, ahead of the No. 12 HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche that failed to get within a second of the pole time.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

Before Hyperpole, qualifying was extremely tight, the battle for shootout spots as fierce as it has been all season.

The No. 93 Peugeot just missed out after ending up 0.02s off the cutoff time in 11th after Mikkel Jensen’s best effort. The No. 8 Toyota also failed to make it in and ended up 12th, Sebastien Buemi left scratching his head after he too was less than 0.1s shy.

Perhaps the biggest storyline was the championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 not making it through into the top 10. Kevin Estre struggled and his best time of 1m51.984s was only enough for 14th.

“The car was difficult to drive. I didn’t put a lap together, I didn’t figure out how to go fast without a mistake. I couldn’t put it together so we will have to see if we can make it better for the race. We will see what we can learn from the sister car. It’s very difficult,” a disappointed Estre said after climbing out the car.

The No. 6 wasn’t the only Porsche that didn’t make the final shootout. Proton’s 963 ended up 16th and JOTA’s No. 38 would finish the session 17th after Jenson Button suffered a spin on his final flyer.

Before the Hypercar drivers took to the circuit, Heart of Racing scored Aston Martin’s first LMGT3 pole with the new evo-spec Vantage.

New spec, plus some hometown form for Ian James and Heart of Racing. JEP/Motorsport Images

Ian James’ best time in the No. 27 Aston was a 2m05.587s, set with 3m to go in Hyperpole. Confident it was good enough for a front-row spot, the Briton then parked up with 1m to go and watched the final times come in.

“I feel great for the team on home soil; it’s our first pole and a great achievement,” James said.

Sarah Bovy came closest for Iron Dames. A late improvement from the Belgian put the No. 85 Lamborghini second with a 2m05.759s.

“It’s a good team effort. We worked hard to get the car more competitive. We could go for it but I lost power steering so I couldn’t improve. P2 is not a bad position to start from; we just need to fix that issue to start the race,” Bovy said.

Her flyer initially pushed championship leader Alex Malykhin in the Pure Rxcing Porsche to third, though the No. 92 911 would eventually fall to fourth after Francois Heriau set a rapid 2m06.011s. That put the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari third and on the second row. The top five was completed by TF Sport’s No. 82 Corvette of Tom van Rompuy.

Many eyes were on the returning Ben Keating in the No. 88 Proton Ford Mustang during Hyperpole. The Texan looked to replicate his strong form in GTE Am Qualifying last year, but he could only manage ninth.

His time was just over 1s off pole and slower than the No. 54 Vista AF Ferrari, No. 59 United Autosports McLaren and No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin which will occupy positions sixth, seventh and eighth on the grid come Sunday.

With eight of the nine brands in the class making it into Hyperpole via the qualifying session, several significant cars didn’t make the cut.

The No. 95 United Autosports McLaren was the fastest of the cars that didn’t make the top 10, with Josh Caygill missing out by under 0.1s.

“Disappointed not to make it through; [We] did briefly but we got called for track limits. We will have to take it sensible tomorrow and see how it goes,” Caygill said between the two sessions.

The Manthey EMA Porsche which won at Spa and Le Mans also didn’t make it through, qualifying 16th.

Lexus ended up the only brand that didn’t make the cut. French team AKKODIS ASP will start the race 12th and 17th with its pair of RC F LMGT3s.

Sunday’s race is set to get underway at 1 p.m. CT.

RESULTS

Cadillac teases home-turf pace atop third practice at COTA

Final practice for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race at Circuit of The Americas began under the cover of clouds with the coolest conditions we’ve seen all weekend. Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R finished with the fastest time of …

In the first ten minutes, a flurry of fast times rolled in, beginning when Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid set the fastest time of the weekend at that time, a 1m51.533s.

A minute later, Lynn would come through in the blue Cadillac with a 1m51.471s to take and keep the top spot in Hypercar.

It sets up the tantalizing prospect of the American marque taking pole position for its home race, but the leaderboard was very close and much could still change once qualifying gets underway.

“Yesterday, on theoretical lap time, we were P1 as well,” Lynn said. “I think we’re very competitive on long run as well as short runs. I think we’ve got the car to get a good result and now we just have to stay focused and bank that result.”

Antonio Fuoco was second-fastest in the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P with a 1m51.511s, and Kobayashi’s best lap stood as the third-fastest.

Fourth was Robert Kubica in the yellow No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, with Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota in fifth.

Norman Nato’s No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 was the fastest of his marque in sixth, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the No. 51 Ferrari and Mick Schumacher in the No. 36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 in eighth.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

Just 0.324s covered the top eight — 0.383s covered the top ten – and less than two seconds covered the entire 18-car Hypercar field.

Hypercar Championship leader Kevin Estre sat just outside the top ten, 11th in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, hampered by a damper problem.

Meanwhile, in LMGT3, Corvettes dominated FP3 after leading FP2 on Friday. Daniel Juncadella again set the fastest time in the No. 82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R (2m05.178s) during the final moments, 0.2s faster than the sister car, the No. 82 of Charlie Eastwood (2m05.351s).

The No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Davide Rigon was third fastest, some 0.4s behind the fastest Corvette (2m05.542s). Fourth fastest was the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo (2m05.549s).

Further down the order the LMGT3 Championship leading car, the No. 92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R, had another quiet run. Klaus Bachler’s best time landed him 10th in class (2m06.656s).

Elsewhere in the class, Sean Gelael received a 5m stop-and-go penalty for constant abuse of track limits during Friday’s second free practice session. His car, the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3, was the slowest of the LMGT3s Saturday morning (2m06.565s).

The session was drama-free, otherwise, even when accounting for a brief yellow for debris on track.

NEXT UP: Qualifying begins Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CT.

RESULTS

Keating makes late switch from spectator to racer at WEC’s Lone Star Le Mans

Ben Keating expected to be a spectator this weekend for the FIA World Endurance Championship race at his home track. Living only an hour and a half from Circuit of The Americas and having a free weekend, the reigning WEC GTE champ and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 racer wouldn’t miss a chance to hang out with friends that he doesn’t get to see much of now that he’s not racing in the series full time. But then Proton Competition’s Christian Ried gave the Texan an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I was expecting to come as a spectator to harass all of my friends from the World Endurance Championship,” Keating said. “I was delighted that it happened to be on a weekend that I did not have anything else going on, so I was planning to be here anyway. Christian Ried, who I competed against for the last four years, is also a good friend. He called me and asked if I wanted to compete in the race, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It’s it’s fun to be back in the series with these people. It’s fun to be back at this particular track. I haven’t raced here since 2019, but I’ve had a lot of a lot of success here.”

Unexpected COTA outing with Proton’s Ford Mustang LMGT3 is a special treat for Keating. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

So, Keating is racing the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 at the Lone Star Le Mans weekend with Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen. Which is probably just as well, because racers don’t make very good spectators anyway. And the Ford is a good fit for Keating.

“When Christian called and said, ‘Hey, do you want to drive the Mustang?’ It was exciting. It’s awesome. I have four Ford dealerships in Texas. I’m a third generation Ford dealer. Because of my experience in the Ford GT at Le Mans in 2019 I have a lot of relationships, people who are still around in Ford Performance racing,” he said.

“And, it’s fun to to be able to come back and compete again. It’s one level just to come back and see everybody and be a part of the family; it’s another thing to really be back in the seat and and compete.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

When Keating talks about being part of the family, he means it. Having competed in WEC and IMSA with several different teams, he’s made a lot of friends over the years. And while he competed in LMP2 at Le Mans, Le Mans is a a different atmosphere than a normal WEC race.

“I really love the people of this series. I love the family that this series is,” he said. “I was super excited to come back. Whether it’s whether it’s TF Sport that I raced with for two years, or United [Autosports] that I’m teamed with this year in IMSA, Proton… there are so many different relationships. I have really good, solid relationships that I have in this paddock through the years so I’m hugging all the pit officials and stewards and all of that stuff. It’s just awesome.”

For his first outing in the Mustang GT3, the first time in a GT3 car in a while, and it being a year since he raced any kind of GT car, Keating says that he has pretty low expectations of himself this weekend. That’s despite his past success in the series, and he recognizes that others may have more confidence in him. But he’s at COTA, and he’s going racing, which is enough.

“I’m just happy to be here,” he said. “Even if I’m running in the middle of the pack, there’ll be people to race with, and I’ll have a good time.”

Ferrari AF Corse vaults to the top in second COTA WEC practice

Ferrari AF Corse’s pair of factory 499P Hypercars finished Friday’s practice running at COTA 1-2 in the times as heat continued to climb trackside and the lap times continued to fall. Leading the way was the No. 51 Ferrari of last year’s 24 Hours of …

Ferrari AF Corse’s pair of factory 499P Hypercars finished Friday’s practice running at COTA 1-2 in the times as heat continued to climb trackside and the lap times continued to fall.

Leading the way was the No. 51 Ferrari of last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Antonio Giovinazzi, who placed his car atop the time sheets just 10m into the session with a 1m52.268s. A few minutes later, the No. 50 Ferrari of reigning Le Mans champion Antonio Fuoco crossed the line to set a 1m52.320s, good for second place on the board.

The No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 showed some speed early on as Robin Frijns set the third-fastest time (1m52.383s), but just before halftime, Sheldon van der Linde was four laps into a stint when he spun exiting Turn 15 and lost his right rear wheel.

The incident brought out a red flag — the only interruption of the session — but a bizarre one for the often beleaguered Bavarian machine which was towed back to the garage otherwise intact.

Alex Lynn was fourth fastest in the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which continues to show good one-lap pace around COTA. In fifth was AF Corse’s privateer Ferrari, the No. 83 of Robert Kubica, ahead of the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi in sixth.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

The best of the Porsche 963s was not one of the Porsche Penske Motorsport works cars, but rather the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA car of defending Lone Star Le Mans winner Norman Nato in eighth.

Matt Campbell was only 13th fastest in the No. 5 Penske Porsche but, as the session progressed, long-run development became more of a focus over one-shot speed.

LMGT3 was led by TF Sport with its No. 82 Corvette, its best time a 2m05.630s from Daniel Juncadela

It was tight up top, though, as the two Vista AF Corse Ferraris completed the top three with times in the 2:05s and within 0.1s of the quickest Z06.

NEXT UP: Free practice three, Saturday morning at 11:00am CT.

RESULTS

JOTA departure prompts Porsche to explore new opportunities

Urs Kuratle, the director of factory LMDh racing at Porsche, says the German brand will be sad to see Hertz Team JOTA switch to competing with Cadillac at the end of the current season. While Porsche was aware of the British team’s switch to …

Urs Kuratle, the director of factory LMDh racing at Porsche, says the German brand will be sad to see Hertz Team JOTA switch to competing with Cadillac at the end of the current season.

While Porsche was aware of the British team’s switch to becoming Cadillac’s service provider for its two-car factory Hypercar effort long in advance of the news becoming public, Kuratle admits that the marque is still disappointed that JOTA’s time as a 963 customer team is coming to an end.

“We are extremely sorry to lose JOTA from the customer stable,” he told RACER. “They put in great performances, which was good for Porsche, won the race at Spa and achieved more positive results. It’s a shame to lose them but the step they are taking is understandable.

“On a personal note, I will miss going into the JOTA garage on race weekends. They are a really great bunch of people and it’s a shame that we will lose those guys and access to that garage.”

JOTA’s departure comes at an interesting time for Porsche’s 963 program. On one hand, the factory effort with Penske is going from strength to strength. On the other, the customer program looks set to shrink due to the level of budget required serving as a barrier to entry for aspirant teams and a lack of space on the grid in the FIA WEC.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

“We are in discussions on how we want to replace, or if we want to replace JOTA’s cars going forward,” Kuratle said. “The difference between the WEC and IMSA in this instance is that there are more spots available in IMSA’s GTP class. That makes IMSA the place to be for customers and there’s not much we can do about that.

“We will see how it goes. We have Proton and JDC and we are in contact with different people. It’s still not a huge market; there are not 10 teams asking for a car.”

Interestingly, with fewer customer cars in circulation, the task of rolling out updates for the 963 going forward will become be easier, but the loss of JOTA coincides with a change in stance from the German marque on implementing “joker” updates for its car.

With Penske leading both the IMSA and WEC manufacturers’ championships, Porsche isn’t quite as eager to bring substantial changes to a car which is winning races regularly, in its second year of competition and still maturing.

“The [planned] crankshaft change is done (not happening), and that’s clear, and we are discussing other things, but there will be no major updates on the car for next year,” Kuratle confirmed.

“In the off-season, we will focus on rest for our people, though there are still things we need to work on operationally. We need to build up cars, too, ahead of January and Daytona.”

Next three races will make or break Ferrari’s WEC title hunt

Just three races remain in the 2024 WEC season and with teams already up and running in Austin for Lone Star Le Mans, it’s beginning to feel like crunch time in the Hypercar drivers’ and manufacturers’ title races. In the drivers’ points, it’s a …

In the drivers’ points, it’s a three-way battle between the No. 6 Porsche crew of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor, Ferrari’s No. 50 trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen and the full-season duo in the No. 7 Toyota, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. The No. 6 Porsche drivers hold a 19-point advantage out front and just 22 points separate them.

With 20 hours of racing to come and a total of 90 points still on offer, the leaders mustn’t be feeling comfortable. One bad result could change everything. One slip-up could undo the No. 6’s stunning run through the first five races of the season, which included a win, three second-place finishes and a fourth. It could also shake things up in the manufacturers’ standings, as Porsche leads Toyota by just four points and Ferrari by 17.

The pressure is on for all three contenders, but while one would expect Porsche’s crew to be feeling the heat the most in the Texas sunshine, this weekend appears to be most vital for Ferrari.

Within the AF Corse camp, the expectation is that, of the three circuits to come, COTA represents its greatest opportunity to score a second win this season. The nature of the technical, high-speed, 3.426-mile circuit is likely to suit the 499P more than Fuji and Bahrain, the two circuits where the team struggled the most last season.

Off the back of a tricky weekend in Brazil — where AF Corse’s contending 499P finished sixth and behind both the No. 6 and No. 7 — it’s become even more important to bounce back to prevent its chances of winning the titles from slipping away.

“It’s no secret that São Paulo was very difficult for us as a team,” No. 50 driver Nicklas Nielsen told RACER. “I think our car suits a track like this much better. Circuits with slow corners and rotation are where we struggle the most, so this is very important for our championship because what we have seen from Porsche is a good step from last year, and with Toyota, we know what they can do; it’s no surprise they are strong. I think they will be the most difficult to beat, actually.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

Last time out, Ferrari debuted its first evo “joker” update to the 499P, which focused on improving aero efficiency, braking efficiency and cooling. Is this one of the circuits where Ferrari expects to make gains from the updates?

“It’s difficult to say,” Nielsen responded. “I was optimistic before Sao Paulo, but it was one of the worst races of the season for us. Yet if you look at the bigger picture, it’s clear it will have an impact. The most important race for us will be Fuji, which is so heavy on braking. That’s the hope.”

Ferrari was one of the Hypercar manufacturers that took part in a multi-day test at COTA over the summer in advance of the WEC’s first visit to Austin since 2020. Nielsen felt that experience gave him and the team an indication of what to expect from the Hypercar category’s first race at the Grand Prix venue, even though parts of the circuit have been re-surfaced since the running.

“Testing is always better than no testing and we will see,” Nielsen said. “What we expect is more grip in the race with the new surface, and that will suit our car well.

“We’re all just eager for it to start because this place is impressive. It will make for an interesting battle because you can lose a lot of time here through traffic. It’s going to be as exciting as it is important for us.”

For Molina, Fuoco and Nielsen who won Le Mans back in June, this has been somewhat of a fairytale season, but the task isn’t over and there’s no time to relax.

Nielsen in particular is well aware that he is presented with a rare opportunity. Not only can he become a Le Mans champion and world champion in the same season, he can also complete a journey with Ferrari that has seen him rise from single-make Ferrari Challenge competition, all the way to the top in sports car racing.

“I would never have imagined I could do this,” Nielsen concluded. “Winning the title would make it a perfect season for us, not just for us drivers, but for Ferrari. To win Le Mans and close the season with a championship would be amazing; it’s what we are trying to do.

“Just winning Le Mans was unbelievable. It took time to realize what we did and it’s very difficult to describe what I felt because it was such a big achievement. We haven’t really celebrated properly yet. We are waiting until the end of the year to do that.”

Campbell puts Porsche ahead in first COTA WEC practice

The FIA World Endurance Championship teams rolled out onto Circuit of The Americas for the first time in four and a half years with opening practice for Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans. Matt Campbell ended up with the fastest lap of the session with the …

Conditions were sunny and very warm for the first 90-minute session of the weekend, which was interrupted by a red flag for a stalled car, and then a full course yellow to retrieve the stranded No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Claudio Schiavoni down at Turn 19. Race control added five more minutes of track time to the session near the end.

Antonio Fuoco was the first driver to crack into the 1m54s in his factory red No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari with a 1m54.118s, but he would soon be surpassed by the privateer No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica. The Pole set a 1m54.034s, his time also coming within the first 30 minutes.

But it wouldn’t finish as a Ferrari 1-2, as Oliver Rasmussen turned in a 1m54.051s in the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 — just 0.017s back of Kubica’s time.

Then, with less than two minutes left, Campbell set the fastest time at 1m53.574s, putting the factory Porsche on top. Rasmussen was third fastest in what was encouraging start to the weekend for the No. 38 JOTA crew, which is celebrating 50 years of Mobil 1 with a commemorative livery this weekend.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

The two factory Ferrari AF Corse 499Ps finished fourth and fifth — the No. 50 of Fuoco ahead of the No. 51 of Antonio Giovinazzi.

Alex Lynn was sixth fastest in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, just edging out Hypercar championship co-leader Kevin Estré in the No. 6 Penske Porsche that slotted in seventh, with Rene Rast eighth in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. The No. 15 WRT BMW, and No. 7 Toyota completed the top 10 in Hypercar.

In LMGT3, the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Alessio Rovera was the fastest in this session with a 2m06.253s. The No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang of Dennis Olsen landed in second position, 0.2s behind the class-leading car (2m06.475s). The sister car, the No. 77 Ford Mustang driven by Ben Barker, was third fastest (2m06.723s).

Further down in the LMGTE ranks, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 EVO2 had a difficult session as Claudio Schiavoni stopped on track at Turn 19 for an extended period because of technical issues.

It was a quiet session for the championship leading car, too. The No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler was the slowest car in the session with a 2m08.421s set by Bachler after completing 34 laps.

Free Practice 2 starts this afternoon at 5:10pm local time.

RESULTS

TF Sport eager to fly Corvette flag in Texas as it ramps up GT3 program

This weekend is a significant one for TF Sport, representing Corvette on home soil at Lone Star Le Mans in the WEC’s first race at Circuit of The Americas since 2020. Up front in the LMGT3 class, it’s a three-way battle for the lead of the …

This weekend is a significant one for TF Sport, representing Corvette on home soil at Lone Star Le Mans in the WEC’s first race at Circuit of The Americas since 2020.

Up front in the LMGT3 class, it’s a three-way battle for the lead of the championship, with Manthey’s pair of Porsche sitting 1-2 in the standings and the No. 92 from Pure Rxcing holding a commanding 25-point lead after another win in São Paulo.

But the expectation is that this weekend’s six-hour race in the Texas sunshine will not be a walk in the park for either of the two 911s, or the title-contending No. 31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3. There’s a lack of circuit knowledge to content with, success ballast to factor in and tweaks to the Balance of Performance, which should see the field tighten. The COTA circuit has also been resurfaced over the summer, making the weekend’s action a challenge for everyone.

While the title battle is in full focus with the season beginning to come to a close, there are plenty of additional storylines to follow in the category. With each passing race meeting it’s becoming more hotly contested as the teams new to the WEC and those racing with new cars grow into the season. There’s a not-so-orderly queue of teams now desperate to score a first win before the end of the season.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

One of these is TF, which has endured a challenging run through the first five races. The transition from Aston Martin to Chevrolet and the task of competing with a brand-new GT3 car was never going to be a walk in the park, but Tom Ferrier’s crew have stuck at it, balancing the team’s flagship WEC GT3 program with its European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series commitments.

“Everyone comes here happy and energized after a bit of a summer break,” Ferrier told RACER. “It’s been really hard this year. We do the same programs every year it feels like, but this time Asian Le Mans rolled straight into the additional WEC race at Qatar and the Prologue, which meant four weeks back to back, and in ELMS there was a doubleheader last year, so it’s been the same program but with more races. We’ve also done a lot more testing this year to get our heads around the Corvette.”

So far this year TF has a best finish of seventh at Imola with the No. 81 car of Tom van Rompuy, Charlie Eastwood and Rui Andrade. But Ferrier doesn’t feel that reflects the team’s progress. Regardless, priority one for this season was simply learning the ins and outs of the new car and building its relationship with GM and Pratt Miller.

“We’re taking steps forward,” Ferrier said. “We haven’t shown that in actual results, but in Brazil, for instance, we should have been P4 had we not had a drive-through, and that would have been a good result for us. We just need a big result on the board, and we hope here is where things change. Too often we’ve had flawless runs in practice and qualifying, then had issues in the race.

“You always have high hopes, and when we started off with pole in Qatar we thought, ‘Wow!’But we said going in, getting a podium in year one would make us happy and we wanted to be fighting for that at the end of the year. We never thought we’d come straight in and have it easy.

“The whole torque sensor addition for the class (for BoP purposes), for instance, has been tricky and created a lot of work. We felt like we were playing catch-up early on because some factories in the class had a bit of a head start with it (through parallel Hypercar programs which have been utilizing the devices since the category’s debut).

“The virtual energy aspect has really changed the in-race strategy too, because the stints are shorter, we are doing more stops and in WEC tire allocation is limited, so you have to be careful and experiment. But we are in a good place now.”

The results haven’t yet fully shown it but TF Sport is confident its pair of Corvettes are making progress with the LMGT3 learning curve. Motorsport Images

Behind the scenes, work has been ongoing throughout the season to improve the Z06 LMGT3.R, whether that be via updates to improve the car’s software and reliability, or via shared experiences with other Corvette customer teams.

Corvette Racing has been tactical at this early stage, providing a restricted number of customer cars for a set of teams who all compete in separate championships. By not pitting customers against each other, it enables them to have an open relationship.

“We’ve been doing group Zoom calls with Pratt Miller, AWA and DXDT between races, where we share information and discuss any issues we have,” Ferrier said. “That’s been so helpful at this stage.

“It makes for a really nice product. Pratt Miller and GM do so much in the background and that’s made it very positive in year one because we have had reliability issues and blind spots. But we’ve been working through it, every weekend the car receives updates and that’s been massive.”

This is just the beginning of what TF Sport hopes will be a long-term, successful partnership with GM. Plans for an expansion of its effort with Corvette are afoot following the delivery of a third chassis in June ahead of Le Mans. This third car will not only act as a test chassis going forward, it will likely be used for race programs outside of the WEC.

For starters, Ferrier hopes to use it in the Asian Le Mans Series over the winter, so he can compete for an automatic invitation to the Le Mans 24 Hours via success in the GT3 class that would guarantee a third Corvette on the grid for the biggest race of the year. Taking it to the ELMS for the first time in 2025 is also a possibility.

“It would mean more learning on the Goodyear tires and the torque sensors if we take the car to ELMS, which would boost our WEC program,” Ferrier explained.

Could appearances in IMSA to bolster GM’s presence at the big Floridian endurance races be on the cards?

“I’d like to, but probably not next year as we are focused on getting the WEC program right first,” he said. “Never say never though!”